The Search For Something More
by xellie23x
Summary: As he sat there holding her hand in the hospital he thought that this was a strange way to meet someone but then he realised that it wasn't important how he met her because all that mattered was that he had met her. Leyton story.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**A/N: So I had a day off school today and I decided to write and upload this. Since it's my first story I would love some feedback even if it's just to tell me where I'm going wrong.**

**So I got this idea when I was watching an old Friends episode and Joey helps a woman he just met give birth so I thought that would be such a weird way to meet someone and this story came about, it's a Leyton story so Brucas fans probably shouldn't read it, not that I say anything bad about Brooke or Brucas I just don't want people to read it and hate it just because of the pairing.**

**Sorry, I'll shut up now and let you read...**

**Disclaimer: I don't own One Tree Hill but you probably already knew that.**

Lucas Scott was in his favourite old, musty book shop. He loved books, especially old books because there was just something about them, maybe it was that old book smell that he just couldn't get enough of. His friends all found it weird that he liked this place; he was only 23 after all, they said that he should be out there living and travelling but he didn't want that. This was the place that he came when he needed to escape because what place better than a new world without his troubles; without Lindsey.

He had been with Lindsey for over a year so it was more than a bit of a shock when he found out that she was pregnant with another man's baby. At first she'd told him that there was a possibility that the baby was his but there wasn't, her baby had been conceived when Lucas was on his month long book tour. His new book was about the hope that love could be found, at the end of the book the man found his true love, he thought it was ironic that he'd lost the woman that he thought was his true love because of that book. She told him that she'd been cheating on him for two months before the pregnancy, she asked for his forgiveness but he wouldn't give it. After that he knew that she wasn't his true love.

Peyton Sawyer walked, well waddled, into the book shop looking for anything to keep her entertained, she'd finished college last month and officially had nothing to do now, well except have a baby. She'd graduated college with a music and business degree when she was seven months pregnant, she'd been looked down on by her classmates and teachers but she stopped caring after a while because they didn't know her or her situation. It wasn't like she meant to get pregnant or she just slept with every guy she saw, she was just a girl who had a boyfriend, her boyfriend who had abandoned her the minute she told him she was pregnant. It wasn't like she wanted to be a single mum; she just didn't have another choice.

She was looking over a book that she was interested in when she saw him, she was stood behind a bookshelf so he couldn't see her large stomach, he looked at her at the same time and they locked eyes for a split second, he noticed the book that she was holding and he decided to speak, he couldn't not speak to this beautiful girl.

"You know, I hear that's a really good book." He commented confidently, it had been two months since he'd last seen Lindsey and he'd barely looked at another woman until now.

"Really?" She asked with a surprised smile on her face, it wasn't often people talked to her in a friendly way these days let alone advice on books. "Why should I trust your judgement?"

"Well, I wrote it." He smirked, this was usually the time when the girls would fall for him and this was what he was hoping would happen now, this girl was definitely something. "I'm Lucas." He held his hand out for her to shake.

She rounded the corner to shake his hand and watched as his mouth fell open when he saw her baby bump. "I'm Peyton." She laughed at his obvious discomfort but it wasn't like she wasn't expecting it.

"Oh, it's um... I have to go." He stammered. In his defence he wasn't exactly expecting her to be pregnant when he started hitting on her.

She nodded with understanding, with all of the people that had walked out of her life over the past eight months this one guy that was obviously about to start flirting with her wasn't a big loss.

Just as he was about to leave the shop he heard a scream from behind him, he turned to see it was the girl he had just met who was now on the floor clutching her stomach. He immediately ran to her side and bent down next to her whilst trying to help her up but she didn't want to stand up, her stomach didn't feel right and she was pretty certain that she was in labour.

"Ouch!" She screamed when he once again tried to lift her up. "Please stop that, I really don't want to stand up right now."

"Oh, sorry." He apologized, feeling incredibly stupid about not knowing what to do with a pregnant woman, he then spoke to the shop owner, "Have you got a chair or something?"

"Yeah, sure. I'll be back in a second." He awkwardly scurried off.

"God this hurts." She said as she gripped his hand. "They said that labour would only get worse as well, I'm so not looking forward to the next few hours."

"You're in labour?" He asked feeling like an idiot again. "Do you want me to call an ambulance?"

"Yes please. I'm not exactly in the best state to drive." She commented sarcastically which he laughed at until he saw her glare back at him.

The shop owner reappeared with the chair which Lucas carefully helped Peyton into, he called the ambulance and decided that he should keep her talking to take her mind off the pain.

"How far along are you?" He asked, from the size of her stomach he guessed that it was pretty far.

"Eight months and eight days, it's a little early but everything should be okay." She said, trying to convince herself.

"Do you want me to call anyone? The father?" He asked, selfishly hoping that she wouldn't tell him she had a boyfriend or husband. Not that it mattered anyway, he couldn't be interested in her; she was pregnant after all.

"There is no father." She whispered as though she was ashamed which once again made him feel like a complete idiot.

"Oh, and there's no one else I could call?" He asked, not believing that this beautiful woman could be alone.

"No, I'm doing this on my own." She said, trying to act determined when really she just wanted to cry. Suddenly she felt her stomach tightening again and she found herself squeezing his hand until he looked like he was going to scream, he wanted to ask her to stop but he knew that whatever pain she was going through was ten times worse than this. Besides she needed someone and he wasn't about to let her go through this alone.

He stayed with her talking her through the contractions and letting her hold his hand even though they'd only met half an hour ago. The more Lucas found out about her the more captivated by her he was, she was probably one of the most intelligent people he had ever met and he found himself feeling sad that she didn't have anyone to go through the birth with but at the same time he was happy to be the one she was experiencing this with.

* * *

The ambulance finally arrived and she was wheeled on even though she insisted that she could walk.

"You can ride with your girlfriend Mr Scott." The paramedic informed him.

"What? She's not my girlfriend, we only met today." He stammered, at this point Peyton was in the ambulance going through another contraction but this time she was on her own and it almost broke his heart.

"Oh, I'm sorry I just assumed. Anyway you've done a great job here." The paramedic told him and he said that he only felt it was his duty. He went into the ambulance to say goodbye and good luck but when he saw her scared face he couldn't bring himself to do it.

"Hey, I was just wondering if you want me to stay with you in the ambulance and keep you company at the hospital." He offered quietly, he wanted her to experience this with someone even if that someone was a complete stranger.

"I can't ask you to do that." She shook her head even though she desperately wanted someone with her at the hospital.

"Don't worry about it, I don't have anything else planned, besides it'd give me peace of mind and I'm told by my sister-in-law that I'm great with pregnant women." He insisted.

"From my experience so far I would have to disagree with her but it seems like there's no stopping you so okay." She rolled her eyes but she was actually relieved that she was still going to be able to hold someone's hand through this.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**A/N: Can I start off by saying that I've never given birth so I really have no idea what it's like which is why this chapter might be a bit weird and inaccurate and just completely terrible.**

**Also thank you so much to everyone who reviewed/followed/favourited this story, it came as a bit of a shock that people actually liked it but all of the reviews were so nice. Actually the only criticisms that I had were from my cousin, but apparently the dialogue in this chapter is accurate now unlike the last chapter. This chapter's actually a lot longer than the first, I'm not really sure how that happened but I guess all of the reviews inspired me so thank you again.**

Once they made it to the hospital they were told that she would still be waiting for while which wasn't surprising considering it was her first child. Lucas sat on the chair next to her just holding her hand when she felt a contraction and in between he would try to talk to her until she insulted him then a few minutes later he'd try again.

"I know that you said you don't want anyone here but do you want anyone to know that you're having the baby," he questioned on one of the occasions he was feeling braver.

"I guess my best friend, Brooke, but other than that there's no one. She was supposed to come over from New York next week so she'd be here when I had the baby. I guess baby just didn't want to wait for Aunt Brooke," she sighed rubbing her stomach.

"Do you want me to call her and let her know what's going on?" he offered and she was slightly taken aback by his kindness, not that it should have shocked her after his generosity so far.

"That would be great, thank you," she admitted then gave him her number.

"Hi, is this Brooke Davis?" Lucas asked not sure how this conversation should go.

Peyton heard the voice on the other end say _"Who wants to know?"_ in a typical Brooke fashion.

"I'm Lucas Scott and I'm with your friend Peyton-" he began to tell her the tale but was cut off.

"_Wait P. Sawyer has a new boyfriend? What am I saying of course she doesn't; she didn't tell me and she's knocked up. Does this mean you're really some psycho stalker who's holding her hostage or something? I'm calling the police-" _Peyton laughed at Lucas' scared face.

"Look I'm going to stop you there. Peyton's in labour, I met her this morning and I'm not holding her hostage," he told her which Peyton just rolled her eyes at.

"_She's in labour!" _Lucas pulled the phone away from his ear for a second because it was damaging his ear drums. _"Put me on speaker right now!" _he didn't see any room for argument so he did as asked.

"Hey P. Sawyer, how're you and my god-baby doing?" Brooke's voice rang through the room.

"We're okay but they say it should be another couple of hours before the baby's born," she gave the information.

"Okay I'm on the first flight out to LA..." Brooke promised.

"No, you have a really busy week Brooke; there was a reason that you were going to come over next week," Peyton insisted.

"Peyton you can't go through the birth of your child on your own," Brooke told her but Peyton wasn't going to let her get away with it that easily.

"I'm not on my own, Lucas is here," Peyton smiled with confidence.

"Lucas? Peyton you met him this morning, he could be a psycho for all you know!" she informed her in her usual protective manner.

"I'll pretend not to be insulted by that," Lucas laughed but Peyton could tell he was a bit offended that someone would think his intentions were anything but honourable.

"He's not a psycho, he's an author," Peyton defended.

"I'm sure that's what he told you, if he's a real author then what's he written?" Brooke asked with google open on her laptop and a few seconds later Lucas' whole life story was already being analysed on wikipedia.

"Um..." Peyton had completely forgotten the name of the book she'd picked up earlier until Lucas mouthed the name to her. "An Unkindness of Ravens."

"Are you serious?" Brooke squealed, now believing her best friend. "You're actually with Lucas Scott? He's like so hot."

"He's also like so in the room!" Peyton protested sarcastically.

"Oh, sorry I forgot about that. Anyway have you had the drugs yet?" she asked, Lucas smiled at the fact that Peyton hadn't denied that he was hot.

"No, I've decided to do it without," she spoke nervously, now doubting her decision.

"Are you crazy?" Brooke started laughing, knowing that Peyton wouldn't be much fun to be around when she was in pain.

"Yeah, I want to have a natural birth," she said apprehensively.

"Well in that case good luck Lucas," Brooke laughed, "Peyton's difficult at the best of times never mind when she's in labour!" Peyton heard something in the background that sounded a bit like Brooke's mother, Victoria Davis. "Look, I have to go now but you ring me back as soon as you've had that baby and I want lots of pictures taken. That can be your job Lucas. Good luck, call me later and I'll see you next week."

"Bye Brooke." Peyton laughed.

"She sounded... fun?" Lucas laughed.

"Yeah," Peyton smiled. "She's been my best friend since we were eight but after high school I moved to LA for music and she stayed in New York for fashion, she owns a company now, Clothes Over Bros, have you heard of it?"

"So that's what Brooke Davis is really like?" Lucas had heard of Clothes Over Bros, who hadn't? "She's pretty impressive."

"Yeah, now don't get any ideas; she has a boyfriend," Peyton teased.

"I didn't mean that! It's just my ex-girlfriend used to love her clothes. Anyway I prefer blondes," the last comment just slipped out without him really thinking about it, was he really trying to hit on a woman when she was in labour?

He then saw her cheeks turn a pinkish colour but he wasn't sure if it was because of his accidental flirting or the fact that she was in labour. She looked like she was going to respond but then she had another contraction so he offered his hand and moved closer to her.

"Why don't guys have to go through this? They have it so easy!" she yelled at him, this wasn't the first time she'd said something like this but he still had no idea how to respond.

"I know it hurts..." he attempted.

"No. You don't know. You're a guy, they just have to sit there and watch the woman do all of the hard work," she argued fiercely.

He replied by rubbing her back and attempting to sooth her in any way possible without speaking seeing as whenever he tried to help her with words he just failed miserably.

* * *

"I'm not some slut, you know," she said randomly after a conversation they'd had about music, she hated the fact that he hadn't asked about the father.

"I didn't think that you were-" he defended himself.

"I wouldn't be surprised if you did, so many people have looked at me as though I'm a slut, even my dad. He told me I shouldn't contact him again unless I had an abortion, actually he told me it was just a mistake that I should get rid of," the tears were welling in her eyes.

"Peyton," he whispered, he was never good with crying women.

She attempted to compose herself. "I'm just saying I know who the father is, it wasn't some random one night stand," she took a deep breath. "He was my boyfriend, Jake; we'd been together five months when I got pregnant. I told him about the baby and he replied by saying that he wasn't ready to be a father and he didn't want to be a part of the baby's life," she paused and looked at Lucas' understanding expression then told him the rest. "But that was only after he'd asked me if it was definitely his and whether I wanted him to go with me to get an abortion. A lot of people think I'm stupid for keeping the baby but I couldn't give it away, I just couldn't."

Lucas found his hand holding hers, "I don't think you're stupid," he whispered. "I think that you're brave and he's the stupid one. My mum actually went through a similar thing. She got pregnant with me right at the end of high school and my dad didn't want anything to do with me, he had a college scholarship and a baby wasn't going to get in the way of that. It was okay in the end though because my mum married his brother, my Uncle Keith, who's more of a father to me than my real dad ever was."

"It's good that your mum had someone, I'd love for my baby to have an Uncle Keith," she admitted.

"Well they'll have an Aunt Brooke," he laughed.

Peyton smiled slightly then Lucas got a phone call from his brother which he had to take so he left her alone for a few minutes during which she thought how she should've had a baby with someone like him instead of Jake.

"Hey Nate," Lucas said into the phone. "Look I'm really sorry but I can't really talk right now, I'm at the hospital."

"What? Is everything okay?" Nathan worried.

"Yeah, I'm just helping someone have a baby," he said.

"What? Did you get someone pregnant?" Nathan asked in shocked tone.

"No! I just met this woman this morning and-" he began to explain quickly.

"Look I'm sorry but Hales overheard me say you got someone pregnant, she wants to talk to you," his voice was apologetic, knowing what his brother was in for.

"Thanks a lot Nate," Lucas said sarcastically.

"Lucas Eugene Scott what the hell is wrong with you?" he winced as he heard Haley on the other side of the phone call, "how could you get someone pregnant and then not tell us about it? Did you cheat on Lindsey?"

"Haley, stop. It's not my baby, I met her this morning and she went into labour. She doesn't have anyone else so I'm just here to support her," he quickly explained.

"Oh. That's nice of you Luke, how's she doing?" Haley asked, knowing how difficult childbirth was she was glad that this girl had someone.

"I think she's okay. She yells at me every now and then but she's a really amazing person and she's so brave," he probably gave a bit more information than necessary but he was still in awe himself of the woman lying in that hospital bed.

"Well, this is kind of weird but we're in LA and we were hoping to stay with you at the beach house for a few days but we don't have the keys so I was going to ask if you could let us in but it sounds like you've got your hands full so we'll just go to a hotel," Haley rambled.

"Don't be silly Hales, why don't you just come to the hospital? I'll give you the keys and you can get back there with Jamie," Lucas suggested.

"If you're sure?" Haley wasn't sure whether it would be okay with the woman he was helping give birth.

"Yeah, it's fine and I'm sure Peyton will be okay with it," Lucas promised her.

"We'll see you in about an hour then," Haley smiled.

When Lucas went back into the hospital room he found the doctor telling Peyton that it was almost time for her to push. Peyton and Lucas had identical shocked expressions as though they hadn't really thought this far into the process but Lucas soon came out of his dazed state and sprang into action by holding her hand again.

* * *

"I can't do this anymore Luke, I can't do it," she cried.

"Of course you can. You're so strong Peyt, I know you can do this and just think that once it's over you're going to have a gorgeous little baby," he promised her then he kissed her hair.

The doctor spoke up, "one more push Peyton."

One push later and her baby was born.

"It's a girl!" the doctor informed them.

Lucas stared in shock at the baby that he had just witnessed being born, she was smaller than he could have ever imagined, she was pink with small tufts of light coloured hair on her head. She was perfect.

The baby girl cried as she was passed to her mother who was crying happy tears. "Hey baby girl, I love you so much."

"She's so beautiful," Lucas whispered then kissed Peyton's hair again.

"Well I kind of like her," she laughed.

"Do you have a name yet?" the doctor asked her.

"Anna Sawyer, I haven't decided on her middle name yet," she said without taking her eyes off her baby.

"I'll just leave you guys alone then, congratulations," the doctor left the room.

"That's a beautiful name," Lucas whispered like he didn't want to disturb the baby even though she was wide awake with her blue eyes staring up at her mother.

"It was my mum's name; she died when I was eight," she said quietly.

"I'm sorry, she'd be so proud of you," he promised.

"Sometimes I think she wouldn't, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have wanted me to get pregnant at 21 with no husband or even boyfriend, I was meant to get a job at a record label once I graduated but when they found out I was pregnant they wouldn't look twice. It just feels a bit like I've failed her," it suddenly occurred to her that she was admitting her greatest fear to a complete stranger, not that he really felt like a stranger anymore since he had just witnessed the birth of her child.

Lucas looked at her sadly for a moment before speaking. "Peyton, you are one of the bravest people that I've ever met and you haven't failed, you got through your last year of college whilst pregnant and now you have Anna. Whenever you feel like you've failed you just look into those perfect little eyes and remember that she sees you as a hero, not a failure because that's what you are Peyton, you're going to be there for the rest of her life and there's no way that can be classed as failure."

"Thank you, that means a lot," she took her eyes away from her baby to look at him with tear filled eyes and in that moment she felt as though maybe there was still some good in the world, her baby girl and the man that had selflessly helped her had proven that for her.

* * *

Both Lucas and Peyton seemed too afraid to speak while Anna was asleep, they didn't want to disturb her peaceful little expression so there was a long silence in the room until a quiet knock at the door could be heard. Haley quietly came inside which caused Peyton to stare at Lucas questioningly.

"Sorry, Peyton this is my best friend and sister-in-law Haley James Scott, Haley this is Peyton and Anna Sawyer," Lucas introduced them.

"Hi, congratulations, I'm sorry I just came to get the keys," Haley felt like she was intruding.

"Oh, it's okay. Actually would you mind taking a picture for me?" Peyton asked her. "My best friend would kill me if I didn't have a picture with the guy who helped me."

"Yeah sure," Haley took Peyton's phone and took a few pictures of her, Lucas and baby Anna. She thought to herself that they looked like a real family.

Their peaceful moment was disturbed when a five year old boy came running into the room with his father a second behind him.

"Jamie? What are you doing in here?" Haley scolded.

"I was bored," Jamie shrugged.

"I'm sorry Peyton this is my husband Nathan and my son Jamie who I clearly haven't taught any manners to," Haley apologised whilst planning out how to scold her son later.

"It's okay, it's nice to meet you," Peyton said smiling, she was tired but she found Lucas' family fun and she liked feeling like a part of something and she hadn't felt like that in a long time.

"Did you just have a baby?" Jamie asked walking over to Peyton's bedside.

"Yeah, this is Anna," Peyton smiled.

Jamie peered over at Anna before deciding on his opinion of her. "She's really small but kind of cool," he reasoned which made all of the adults laugh.

"Yeah, I think so too," Peyton giggled, there was some more small talk until Lucas noticed Peyton getting tired and he decided to send his family away.

"Haley, here are the keys. I'll see you guys later," he told her hoping she'd get the not-so-subtle hint to leave.

"Of course, do you know what time you'll be home?" she asked.

"I'm not sure but if you leave the door unlocked then I won't disturb you," Lucas told them, he didn't want to leave Peyton alone yet.

After the little Scott family left Lucas and Peyton talked for a while until Peyton fell asleep and Lucas was left holding the baby. He was completely captivated by her, ever since Lindsey and her pregnancy he'd doubted whether he even wanted kids, he knew now that he definitely did.

Lucas ended up staying all night; he just couldn't bring himself to leave the strong, beautiful woman and her perfect little baby.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

**First of all thank you very much to everyone who has reviewed this story, I still can't believe how nice people are being about it.**

**Also I have to thank my awesome cousin (who studies English literature, unlike me) because she has made this chapter mistake free (I hope so now I've just said that anyway...). I'm obviously not very good at grammar because my speech sentences have been wrong for the past two chapters but I haven't studied English in over a year now so I do have an excuse.**

"Your family will be wondering where you are," she pointed out to him whilst she was feeding Anna the next morning.

"They know where I am and I don't want to leave you here on your own," he admitted.

"Well, you're going to have to leave me at some point," she told him, playfully.

"And I will eventually, just not yet okay?" He smiled bashfully.

"Thank you for being here for me, I don't know why you are, but I'm pretty sure I couldn't have done it without you." She smiled back at him.

"I did it because a beautiful woman shouldn't be left alone, especially not when she's giving birth," he told her, seriously.

"You seriously need to stop complimenting me, if I didn't know any better then I'd say you were flirting with me." She raised her eyebrows.

"What if I was?" He asked, boldly.

"Then I'd tell you that I just had a baby and I have to think of her before everything." She liked him, she really did, but she'd just had a baby so couldn't even think about starting anything with him.

"I get that." He nodded, "I just think that you're a really great person and I want to see you again, even if it's only as friends."

"You don't even know me," she laughed.

"Actually, I think I do know you," he said confidently which caused her to raise her eyebrows at him, "You're one of the bravest people I know, maybe tied with my mum, you're intelligent and so amazingly beautiful. You're great friend and you're passionate about music and art, you're a waitress but you hate it and can't wait to have another job so you can quit. You have an amazing daughter who is just as beautiful as you and she's going to be a wonderful person because she's got a mum who loves her more than anything."

"You really know how to flatter a girl don't you?" She blushed, "I think it would be great if we could be friends."

"Well then it's settled, we're friends. Anyway have you thought of a middle name yet?" He asked.

"Not yet, I was thinking maybe Brooke but I don't want to be one of those parents who have to have names that mean something, I've already got Anna so if I made it Anna Brooke then it might be a bit too much," she confided.

"I think it'd be nice. I'm sure Brooke would love it and I think it's a really nice name, Anna Brooke Sawyer," he mused aloud; he thought it sounded like a perfect name.

"I'm still not sure..." She looked down at her baby and she looked like an Anna Brooke but she was worried what others might think.

"Look, you know Haley's son, Jamie, who you met yesterday?" Lucas said, Peyton nodded and he continued, "His full name is James Lucas Scott; James is both her maiden name and her dad's first name." He saw her questioning glance and chuckled, "Don't ask, and Lucas is me; her best friend and Jamie's uncle, so trust me, Anna Brooke isn't that bad."

"In that case I think it sounds perfect," she said before kissing Anna's nose.

"How're you going to get home?" He asked.

"I haven't even thought about that yet. My car's still parked outside that book shop." She shook her head, "I'd get a cab but I don't have her car seat with me."

"I can get it for you, if you want. I could get you some fresh clothes as well, that is unless you want to go home in a hospital gown," he offered.

"How're you going to do that when you came here in an ambulance?" She questioned.

He thought for a second, "I'll get Nathan to take me," he decided.

"Are you sure?" She asked, even though she really didn't have another choice.

"It's fine," he insisted. "Do you have your keys?"

She gave them to him and told him where to find the car seat. It was only after he left that she realised she was letting someone she'd only met yesterday into her apartment on his own, then again, if you can't trust the man who helped you give birth, then who can you trust? She realised that this was actually the first time that she was alone with her baby for more than five minutes and as much as she was missing the company she was also enjoying getting to know her baby on her own.

* * *

Lucas arrived at her apartment and was instantly shocked as to why she would even live here, it wasn't exactly in a good neighbourhood and it definitely didn't look like the best place to raise a child. He walked inside her apartment to find that it was clean and tidy and was in a much better condition than he imagined any of the other apartments being. Once he had found the car seat and found some comfortable clothes for her, he made his way back to the door, only to be met by a bald man who seemed to be looking in Peyton's apartment.

"Do you know where Peyton is?" The man asked.

"Is it any of your business?" He was wary of this man, he wasn't going to give her details to just anyone.

"I'm her landlord, she wasn't in yesterday when I came to get her rent and she hasn't been here all morning. If the rent isn't paid by seven tonight then I'll charge her double." His sharp tone told Lucas that he was very serious.

"She's in the hospital, she just had her baby but she'll probably be back by tonight," Lucas told the man, hoping that he'd be more understanding of Peyton's situation.

"Baby?" The man asked, Lucas nodded in conformation as the man continued, "Tell her not to bother coming back then, there are no kids allowed here, I don't want a screaming baby and neither does anyone else. She can pay me that rent anytime within the next week but she's not living here anymore." The man finished before leaving a shocked Lucas frozen to the spot.

He felt like the biggest idiot in the world, he'd got someone he'd only met yesterday kicked out of their apartment when they'd just had a baby. He ran his hand through his hair whilst trying to think of what he could do to make this situation any better, or at least not make it any worse. Then it came to him, it was crazy but he really had no other option if he wanted to fix this, but to do it he was going to need his brother's help.

* * *

"Luke, are you sure about this?" Nathan queried, not sure that his brother was thinking rationally.

"I don't really have a choice, I got her kicked out of her apartment and she doesn't have anywhere else to go." Everything that Lucas had said was true; he just left out the fact that he still wanted to be around her.

"Still, she's practically a complete stranger and she has a newborn baby, I'm pretty sure she's not going to want to stay in a strangers house," Nathan told him, truthfully.

"Like I said, she can't go back there and I'm not letting her go anywhere else, so even though it's not the ideal situation, we'll figure it out." He hoped so anyway, "Now are you going to help me with this crib or not?"

"Yeah sure, anyway, how much more of her stuff are we moving?" he asked as he picked up the crib with Lucas.

"Well, we need to move everything really, so I was thinking of putting some of her stuff in storage and only taking the essentials to the house."

"How do we know what the essentials are?"

"We'll...um... okay so maybe my plan was a bit flawed."

* * *

Peyton was surprised that Lucas had been gone for so long and was starting to worry, especially when the nurses told her that she was being released and she had no way to get home. Which was why she felt so relieved when he walked into her hospital room, even if he did have a guilty look on his face.

"Lucas?" she asked, "What's wrong?" She could tell that it was something; she was just hoping that he hadn't broken anything in her apartment...

"First of all I'm so, so sorry, Peyton. I didn't mean for this to happen and you have no idea how much I hate myself for it..." He began to ramble until Peyton interrupted him.

"What is it, Lucas?" She was really worried, she had her baby to think of. She hated to think that Anna was going home to whatever had Lucas so freaked out.

"I kind of got you kicked out of your apartment." He winced as he admitted it, hoping that she wasn't going to yell at him or worse – cry.

He was definitely surprised when she let out a breathy laugh.

"Great!" she breathed, "that's just freaking great, I asked you to get my car seat so I could take my baby home and now I have no home to go to."

"Could you just listen to me-" He felt so bad for it and he really didn't want her to make him feel even guiltier.

"No, Luke, what the hell am I going to do? I can't stay here forever and I have no family in the city, even my dad doesn't want anything to do with me." She started crying which was exactly what he didn't want.

"What am I going to do," she murmured to herself, that's when Lucas moved over to her and pulled her into a gentle hug and whispered, "You're going to stay with me."

**Thanks for reading and I'd really love some feedback.  
**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews, they really do help me keep going with this story. ****I decided to update this today because here in England it's sunny! It doesn't exactly happen often so I thought this would be a nice way to celebrate, but it does make it harder to write with all of the heat so it might be a bit longer until the next update but I'll try my best.**

**The rest of this A/N was originally a story about how I figured out how this story will go (it involved a school trip, seaweed, an ambulance and a lot of embarrassment) but now I'd like to talk about the review by That-Theater-Kid - who I do know personally so what I'm saying isn't just an assumption. I'd just like to say to him that I don't write this story for people who have only watched the first five minutes of One Tree Hill and found it 'boring' (yeah, he actually said that about OTH, I almost had a mental breakdown!), I write it for my own amusement and for people who have at least watched a whole episode and enjoyed it so if you don't like the show then I really can't understand why you would read this story.**

**Sorry about that but on with the story...**

"You're going to stay with me," he whispered.

"What? I can't do that Lucas." She pulled away, shaking her head.

"Well, I insist on it, considering I'm the one that got you kicked out in the first place, and plus it would really help me feel less guilty about all of this," he explained, "I've got three spare bedrooms and one of them is for you and Anna for as long as you need it," he offered quietly whilst connecting their eyes.

"Luke, I barely know you and you have your family staying with you, they're not going to want a baby there, do you realise she's a newborn? She'll be up half the night," she said, but in the back of her mind she knew that as much as she wanted to refuse his offer, she really didn't have any other choice.

"They won't care, Haley loves kids. And I certainly don't care. Come on, Peyton, I feel awful," he begged.

He watched her think for a moment before she finally admitted defeat, "Okay, we'll do it."

He hugged her again before laughing, "That's good because we've already moved Anna's crib into my spare room."

"That's what you've been doing all day?" She asked.

"Well, that and moving the rest of your stuff into storage," he told her sheepishly, to which she just stared at him in bewilderment.

* * *

After Peyton had changed they rode in Lucas' car to his house. Peyton found it bizarre, she'd only known Lucas a day and yet she was going to be staying with him indefinitely.

Lucas was driving more carefully than he ever had before; he was becoming very protective of the sleeping baby in the back of his car, not to mention her mother.

When they finally reached his house Peyton found herself staring in shock, she'd known Lucas was an author but she'd had no idea that he was a _successful_ author. The house was not just a house but a giant mansion on the beach, she suddenly felt very out of her league as he ushered her forward, carrying the car seat. As Peyton stepped through the door she was met with balloons and three smiling faces, Haley rushed over and hugged her which shocked Peyton but being the gracious person she was, she still returned the hug warmly.

"So, I take it she said yes?" Nathan asked his brother with a smile.

"Well I didn't exactly have another choice," Peyton replied as she glanced at Lucas with a teasing glare.

"I really am sorry," Lucas apologised again.

"I think you're more than making up for it." She smiled at him gratefully.

Jamie walked up to Peyton and looked up at her, smiling shyly he asked, "Is baby Anna staying here with you?"

"Yeah, your Uncle Lucas is holding her in her car seat. I have to warn you that she might wake you up in the night because she cries a lot." She smiled apologetically.

"It's okay, my mama says I sleep like a log and daddy does too," Jamie stated which made Lucas laugh.

"Still, I'll apologise now." She smiled nervously at Haley and Nathan; she really hated this situation even though they were making it as easy on her as possible.

"Anna can't be any worse than Jamie was, I think I got one hour of sleep the night we brought him home!" Haley laughed, "Anyway if you need anything at all I'm here to help. I know how scary it is being a first time mum."

"Thanks, Haley, I'm totally freaking out right now so it'll be great to have someone here who knows what they're doing," she confided quietly.

"Peyt, I think Anna needs changing or something," Lucas said as Anna began to cry. Peyton nodded and followed Lucas as he showed her to one of the guest bedrooms - which just so happened to be the one next to his.

That night Peyton led in bed unable to sleep, it was a rare moment of peace as it turned out that Anna wasn't a big fan of sleep and had been awake most of the night, but now even when she'd finally dozed off Peyton still couldn't let the tiredness send her into that peaceful slumber that she craved so much. She was watched her baby girl sleeping and she just couldn't stop; what if she stopped breathing while Peyton was asleep? Or what if something bad happened to her and she wasn't awake to rescue her. Obviously Peyton knew that she should be getting sleep while she could, she'd done her homework however in the books and the parenting classes they never told you how much the baby could captivate you, she just never wanted to look away.

Then she heard a noise outside the door, she instantly panicked until the door opened with a quiet creak and Lucas tiptoed into her room, book in hand. When he saw that Peyton was awake an 'I've been caught' expression appeared on his face, which made her chuckle softly.

"Sorry, I thought you'd be asleep," he whispered.

"So you came in here to watch me sleep?" She raised her eyebrows, half joking.

"What?" he asked, shocked. "No, no I just remembered that I was going to give you this." He gestured the book towards her.

"Oh, thanks." She took the book from him and read the cover out loud, "An Unkindness of Ravens by Lucas E Scott."

"I just thought seeing as you haven't read it..." He trailed off, now he was just standing there in her room.

"It's great," she thanked him, "So what does the E stand for?"

"It's really embarrassing." He turned away and looked at Anna who was still sleeping softly.

"It can't be that bad," she insisted, before going to stand next to him at Anna's crib.

"It's definitely not something that I'd tell someone after only knowing them for a couple of days." He looked at her, sceptically.

"Well, usually I wouldn't let someone I'd only known for a few hours help me give birth, but you just seemed different to all the other guys."

"Different good?"

"Different amazing."

"It was seriously no problem; you know I still can't believe that you let me help you."

"Why wouldn't I? It was either you or that shop owner who was even more dense about pregnant women than you."

"Hey, I wasn't that bad! I think it was more shock than anything,"

"I believe you actually asked me if I was in labour while I was in the middle of a contraction,"

"How was I supposed to know?"

"Here's a tip for the future: if you see a heavily pregnant woman on the floor holding her stomach and looking like she's in pain then it's safe to say that they're in labour." They both laugh quietly; it was almost unknown territory for them as neither had much to laugh about in recent months.

Unfortunately, Peyton laughed louder than she had intended which caused Anna to wake, Peyton immediately went into mummy-mode, holding her newborn baby close to her and cooing, "Hey, baby. What's wrong? You hungry?"

"She's so, so beautiful Peyton." Lucas watched in awe as Peyton tended to her baby, "She looks just like you with those green eyes."

"I just can't get enough of her, you know?" She said softly without taking her eyes off Anna, "Throughout the whole pregnancy I was terrified; I never had a mum, not really since I was eight, so I thought I'd have no idea how to do this. Then I had my first ultrasound and when I heard her heartbeat for the first time, I knew that somehow I'd make it work, no matter what."

"I know I've said it a million times already but your bravery is just so inspiring," Lucas told her quietly.

"What about you?" She asked with a smile on her face, "You just took in a strange woman and her newborn baby. If that's not brave then I don't know what is."

"Trust me it's not a big deal, I thought that I'd be having a baby in a few months anyway." He told her without taking his gaze off Anna.

Peyton shot him a questioning glance, Lucas sighed and began to explain, "When I was in my senior year of college I met a girl, Lindsey, and we were together for over a year and then about six months ago she told me she was pregnant, at first I was scared but I knew that she'd be twice as scared, so I told her that I'd be there for her and the baby and I meant it, Peyton, I really did. But then she dropped another bombshell on me, she told me that she'd been cheating on me for months and she didn't know who the father was." He had to stop because even though he was over Lindsey, it was still hard to talk about the child that could have been his.

"I'm so sorry, Luke; did you get a paternity test?" Peyton asked, she couldn't imagine what he went through, yet he was still being so open by letting her into his home with a newborn.

"We didn't need to, the baby was conceived when I wasn't even in the same state as her, I was on my book tour." Lucas paused, "In some ways I was relieved that the baby wasn't mine, not because I didn't want it, but because I realised that Lindsey wasn't the one for me, I didn't want to have a child with someone who would cheat on me," he said, quietly. Peyton's eyes locked with his and she gazed curiously into his eyes, as though she was looking for the answer to why she was feeling this way about a guy she'd only just met.

"I can't believe that you'd just accept it and move on, I still can't seem to accept that Jake didn't want our baby," she confided as she put a now quiet Anna into her crib.

"Well, he clearly doesn't know what he's missing out on. He doesn't deserve you two anyway." Their eyes connected as he gave her what she felt was the best compliment in the world, she gravitated naturally towards him and their shoulders brushed, her eyes never leaving his perfect blue ones.

She watched as he bit his lower lip and thought about all the times he'd made his feelings about her clear over the past few days and the only reason she'd come up with for not reciprocating those feelings was the fact that she'd just had a baby.

He turned towards her and Peyton could feel their bodies touching, he leaned in and she couldn't look away, never taking her eyes from his until they closed. He was so close that she could feel his warm breath fluttering against her lips she was about to lean forward into him and close the space between their lips when there was a cry in the room. Peyton felt like she was waking up from a dream as her baby's cry threw her back into reality, it seemed that Anna didn't want her mother's affections to be shared.

Peyton let out a small, nervous laugh and moved away to tend to her baby once again before turning to speak to Lucas, "You know, she's probably right, we shouldn't..."

"Yeah, I know," he whispered to her, it was true, even though he wished it wasn't.

"Maybe someday..." She trailed off, the truth was that it was getting harder to see the reasons why they shouldn't start something, he treated both her and Anna well and she got butterflies every time they were in the same room, she knew they could be great together.

"I'll look forward to someday then," he replied, with a hopeful smile, "But, right now I think I'm going to try and get some sleep because I guess you never know when she'll wake up again."

"Yeah, I'll...uh, I'll see you in the morning okay?" She whispered, before once again giving Anna her full attention.

"Yeah, I'll be seeing you," Lucas replied.

As Lucas left the room he paused at the doorway, giving himself another opportunity to memorise the image of Peyton holding her baby girl, the only light in the room coming from the small lamp in the corner of the room making their skin glow almost angel-like. To him, that image looked pretty perfect.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5:**

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews yet again, I smile every single time ****I get one. **

**I've finally finished school now even though we actually finished our AS exams at the beginning of June but our sixth form made us start next year's work early. Sorry about the complaining but there is a purpose because now I will have more time to write (hopefully) so updates might come a bit faster (no promises though). This chapter will also be less grammatically correct because it was my cousin's birthday at the weekend when I finished this so I thought she deserved a break and now she's really busy but I thought I should update anyway so sorry for the mistakes.**

It had been a week since Peyton had moved in with Lucas or 'staying with him until she found another place' as she put it. The only problem was that Lucas was determined not to let her find another place to live. Every single time that she mentioned it he would distract her by talking about Anna and obviously she would take the bait, he really knew the best ways to get her talking about something else.

Haley had been nothing short of a godsend; she had helped Peyton whenever she needed it and had told her not to worry about the little things even though as a mother herself she knew that she would. The unfortunate thing was that this was the day that Haley, Nathan and Jamie would go home and she was pretty terrified, not only because she'd no longer have Haley's help but also because it would just be her and Lucas in the house, well Anna would be there too but as a baby she couldn't really do anything to help avoid the flirty conversations.

It hadn't been a big thing, there would just be the odd comment thrown out there then Lucas would get a disapproving glare from Haley which would stop it for a while until the next time she teased him. It wasn't that she wanted the flirting to stop; it's just that she didn't want her feelings to intensify further than they already had. Maybe in another lifetime he would have been Anna's father but he wasn't and she knew that if it was just the two of them in the house then she would have to confront the feelings inside her.

Lucas on the other hand was looking forward to having just Peyton and Anna in the house, he loved getting to know Peyton and Anna was a little angel in his eyes, he just loved being around them and this way he could spend more time with them without Haley frowning upon his actions.

* * *

As Nathan and Jamie were saying goodbye to Anna and Peyton at the door, Haley took the opportunity to confront Lucas about his 'inappropriate behaviour'.

"Lucas Eugene Scott." Haley's voice rang out and Lucas immediately stiffened in partial fear.

"Yes Hales?" He winced when he saw her fiery eyes and disapproving frown.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" She put her hands on her hips and glared at him intensely.

"I don't have a clue what you're talking about Haley." He refused to look her in the eye since he knew exactly what she was talking about.

"Don't give me that Luke; it'll just make me more mad at you," she told him furiously.

"Sorry Hales, care to enlighten me on what I've been doing wrong?" He gave one last attempt at playing stupid but with her being Haley she saw right through it.

"No you better enlighten me on what the hell is going through your irrational brain right now. You have been flirting with that girl nonstop and she's only just had a baby, she's exhausted, she's emotional and you're taking advantage of that," she accused him in a dangerous tone.

"It's not all me okay, she's been flirting too and it's not my fault that I can't get her out of my head," he told her coldly before his eyes glazed over when he was thinking about Peyton and Haley had to bring him back to reality.

"She's only flirting with you because you're probably the only guy to act interested in her since her moronic ex-boyfriend and she's hormonal and sleep deprived, she barely knows what she's doing right now," she informed him seriously.

"I know all that and that's why we haven't taken it too far, it's just a bit of fun. We've hardly done anything that you'd say was inappropriate." He thought he'd get her on his side with this argument until he winced when he saw his mistake.

"What do you mean hardly?" she asked him, her icy voice cutting through the silent air.

"Well... we might have almost kissed like twice but it's not a big deal okay? Nothing happened," he said regretfully.

"But you wanted it to," she stated carefully.

"Yeah, she's everything I've ever wanted in a woman Hales," he told her shyly.

"Luke, she has a baby." She informed him as if he didn't already know.

"I know and I don't care! If anything it makes her even more perfect." He took in her crazed look and decided to elaborate. "I can see how strong she is to be willing to do this alone but I'm not going to let that happen because both she and Anna deserve to have someone better than her ex-boyfriend."

"I admire you for that Lucas, I really do, but can you blame me for thinking that this is all to do with Lindsey?" she asked him because it did seem strange to her that Lucas would fall for a woman with a baby just months after finding out that he could have been a dad himself.

"Trust me Hales Lindsey has nothing to do with this, I want to be with Peyton because of her and no one else."

"Okay so you want to be with her but have you thought about what she wants?"

And that was where Lucas was stuck; he had no idea what she wanted. Was it just some harmless flirting or did she want something more because he certainly did, he wasn't lying when he said that she was his perfect woman. They seemed to connect on every level and every day he got to know her better the picture of them together became clearer in his mind, he just hoped that someday she would see that picture too.

* * *

A peaceful silence came over the house once the three Scott's had returned home to Tree Hill. Lucas was holding Anna on the sofa with Peyton falling asleep next to him, he sighed as he looked at the golden curls across her face and hoped that she'd meant someday when she said that to him because he was starting to think it would break his heart if she didn't.

She was still soundly asleep, except for her occasional mutterings, and Lucas knew she deserved it after the hard time Anna was giving her at night, then suddenly Anna started crying and Peyton woke up like she did every time Anna made a sound.

Usually Peyton seemed to have the magic touch with her daughter but today Anna decided against cooperating so that she could cry a little bit more because who doesn't want to rebel against their parents every now and then? Peyton was becoming exasperated with her daughter and Lucas wasn't doing much better, he'd tried all of the usual things to make her stop crying but she just refused to stop.

"Why is she crying?" Peyton asked him for what seemed like the hundredth time.

"I don't know. If I knew that then I'd do something about it," Lucas replied harshly.

"Why are you saying it like that?" she questioned him coldly. "You were the one who said that a screaming baby was no problem."

"It's not, I just didn't expect her to scream for an hour when there's nothing wrong with her." He tried to be patient, he really did, but he was also meant to be writing and he couldn't do that if he was worried about Anna's crying.

"If there was nothing wrong with her then she wouldn't be crying would she?" she replied with a venomous tone.

"Well, well." They turned around to see an uninvited figure in the doorway. "Mummy and daddy arguing, baby crying. Reminds me of my childhood."

"Brooke, thank God you're here." Peyton gave Anna to Lucas then ran over to her best friend and hugged her tightly. "Any chance you have any special baby powers to make her stop crying?"

"Nope sorry." She shrugged then suddenly there was a foreign silence in the room. "Or maybe just my presence is enough."

"Don't worry she'll probably start gain in about half an hour." She sat down on the sofa and sighed. "Come on Anna, don't you want mummy to sleep?"

"She was better last night Peyt, well a bit," Lucas said softly whilst looking into Anna's eyes which were so innocent that you would never guess she'd spent the last hour crying and causing her mother and her Lucas a lot of headaches.

"Yeah because 3 and a half hours sleep is so much better than 2 and a half," she yawned, her eyelids feeling heavier by the second.

"I wish you'd let me help you with her at night," he told her for the tenth time that day.

"You're not the one who had a baby so getting up at night really isn't your responsibility, besides you're already doing too much for us," she told him guiltily.

"It's not like I'm getting any extra sleep anyway because every time she wakes up so do I," he told her, attempting to change her mind.

"Lucas I can't let you do that," she insisted.

"Peyton you need to stop refusing help from a guy who wants to give it but Lucas you shouldn't get too attached to Anna because soon enough Peyton will be moving out and you won't get to see her as much," Brooke interrupted the pair with her semi-harsh words that gave Lucas a deflated expression.

The atmosphere was now a lot more uncomfortable than before the rather brash Brooke Davis had walked into the house so Lucas excused himself to allow the best friends to catch up after handing Anna to her mother once again.

"So can I hold my god-daughter yet?" Brooke asked holding her arms out.

"Of course you can." She passed her now calm daughter to Brooke with a smile.

"Are you going to explain the daddy comment now?" Peyton asked with a concerned look on her face.

"Sorry it just slipped out," she apologised whilst making funny faces at Anna. "But you have to admit that you look like a couple with a new baby."

"Maybe we do but Anna doesn't have a dad so I'd rather not get ideas into her head from the beginning."

"You do realise that she's only a week old and doesn't have a clue what's going on right?" she laughed. "Anyway if you don't want to give her any ideas then why haven't you started looking for a new place yet?"

"Because maybe I like it here and Luke is so kind to us, I don't have enough money to put down a deposit anyway," she muttered.

"Peyton, you know I can help you with that."

"Yeah but I have a daughter now and I need to be able to stand on my own two feet," she insisted.

"There's nothing wrong with accepting a little help."

"I know and that's why I'm still here with Luke." She involuntarily smiled when she thought about how amazing he was with Anna. "I'm just taking my time looking for a new place and he said he doesn't mind how long I stay for."

"Just be careful okay?" Brooke asked her.

"Trust me I'm trying."

* * *

"So I'll call you tomorrow so we can take Anna on her first official shopping trip, you have no idea how excited I am!" Brooke squealed as she hugged Peyton at the door.

"Yeah me too." Peyton attempted to match her excitement.

"Look after them for me Luke," she called back to him as she walked towards her car.

"Wouldn't have it any other way Brooke." He rolled his eyes dramatically.

Peyton closed the door behind her and sighed until Lucas brought her into his arms and gave her a friendly hug.

"So Brooke's even more energetic in person than on the phone," he commented.

"You seriously have no idea," she laughed. "I'm so not looking forward to tomorrow."

"So she gets worse?"

"Shopping is like her addiction and tomorrow will be even worse because now she has a new branch of clothing to look at and that new branch happens to be very cute." She walked over to the sofa and collapsed on it, exhausted from her excitable best friend.

"So you happy that there's no longer a five year old running around to wake up Anna?" he asked her because he knew that deep down he knew that she was excited to see her best friend after almost six months and he didn't want anymore negative thoughts about tomorrow.

"Yeah but I'm really going to miss Haley's expertise and even though he was loud, Jamie was so cute," she admitted.

"Yeah, he is but just think that in five years Anna will be that big."

"Don't remind me." She put her head in her hands as she tried to forget that one day her baby will grow up.

"Then it will be her first day at school, then she's going to have her first boyfriend, then she's going to be graduating and going off to college, then she's going to get married..." he teased her but he stopped when he realised that she had tears in her eyes.

"Peyt? I'm sorry I didn't mean to make you cry, I was just teasing." He pulled her into his arms and whispered softly, "she'll always be your little girl."

"It's not that, I mean her growing up terrifies me but it's because on her first day of school the other kids are going to ask her where her dad is, there's going to be nobody to make threats to her first boyfriend when she brings him home for the first time and when she gets married there's going to be nobody to walk her down the aisle," she sobbed into his chest, this was the first time that she'd voiced her fears about her little girl's life without a father.

Lucas gripped her tight, wishing that somehow he could make it all better for her. "It won't matter whether people ask about her dad because she can tell them that her mum loves her enough for two parents, when there's a boyfriend I'm pretty sure you can handle whoever he is and if worst comes to worst then when she's ready to get married I can walk her down the aisle." He held her as close as he could without suffocating her as she chuckled softly into his chest. "She is already so loved by everyone who comes into her life Peyton, as long as you're there for her she's going to be just fine and I hope that I can be in her life too, I'll be like her uncle Keith."

Peyton laughed at the thought of one of their earlier conversations and his sentiment because the truth was that ever since that day in the hospital she'd wanted him to be her baby's 'uncle Keith'.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**A/N: Once again thank you so much for the reviews; I really love hearing what people think of this story. I never used to review because I was just too lazy but then after I started this I realised just how much a review can motivate someone so I try my best now. Even criticism is appreciated (except from you Rufus) it's the only way to make me a better writer.**

**In a review for the last chapter LEYTON-NALEY mentioned loving Brooke in this story but you might change your opinion in this chapter, I didn't plan at all for Brooke to cause problems (don't worry there's no Brucas) but the original plan I had for the story was really boring so after consulting my cousin (who also did her usual editing) this storyline just happened. Oh and there's also a time jump of about five months between the last chapter and this one.**

**I'm also going away for just over a week on Wednesday but I'll really try to update again before I go, no promises though.**

"Peyt, Brooke's here," Lucas called up the stairs, balancing Anna on his hip, she gurgled at Brooke who stood in the door way. Brooke pushed past Lucas and into the house.

"Oh, I don't care about seeing Peyton, I just want to see the most beautiful baby in the whole world," Brooke cooed as she reached out to take Anna from Lucas' arms.

Lucas handed her over as Peyton bounced gracefully down the stairs. Seeing her so comfortable in his home reminded him of everything that had changed in the last five months including the payments he was receiving from Peyton, who was now paying Lucas rent for her room at her own insistence not his because she couldn't find anywhere affordable that was also a safe place to bring Anna up. Peyton also had a plan for work; Brooke had loaned her some money so she could start up an art studio which she was slowly filling with her paintings inspired by her baby and Lucas.

The only thing that hadn't changed was the fact that Lucas and Peyton were still "just friends" or at least that's what they told their friends, family and people at the park who offered to take a picture of 'the cute family'. They weren't exactly friends but at the same time they weren't together...yet. Lucas was leaving it up to her; she was the one who needed time to get her head around everything so they'd just stick to her timeline, but he had to admit that he hoped she'd decide the time was right sooner rather than later.

"Wow, you've gotten so big haven't you, my little princess Anna?" Brooke spoke in that baby voice that was becoming far too familiar for the adults in the room.

"You've only been in New York for a week, Brooke." Peyton laughed as Brooke carried Anna further into the house as if she owned the place. Brooke had been working in L.A. since she'd arrived a week after Anna's birth, only going back to New York when necessary.

"Yeah but she's just getting so big so fast, is it really bad that I just want her to never grow up?" Brooke sighed as she sat down on the sofa next to Peyton with Anna in her lap, Lucas sat in the chair opposite, watching over Anna protectively.

"She's going to grow up eventually, Brooke," Peyton said in a soft voice.

Lucas laughed at Peyton's comment but even with her warning glare he continued, "That's pretty hypocritical don't you think? You know considering you have a breakdown at least twice a week about her growing up."

Peyton threw a cushion at him which made Anna laugh, possibly the cutest sound any of them had ever heard. Lucas let the cushion hit him and Anna's laughter doubled.

"See, she's laughing already." Brooke looked at Anna with a sad expression.

"I know and in a few months she'll be talking and saying real words," Lucas said wistfully, though he wouldn't admit it to anyone, he didn't want Anna to stop being the cute little baby with her small tufts of golden hair and green eyes that he would never be able to say no to.

"I don't want to even think about her talking right now," Peyton said to which Lucas gave her a look that told her she was in denial. She ignored him and continued, "So, Brooke, how was New York?"

"Um, it was... it was okay," she replied looking down at Anna avoiding Peyton's gaze.

"Okay? That's all you're going to give me?" she asked, confused as to why Brooke, over talkative Brooke, wasn't giving her the details. "Did you get to spend much time with Julian?"

"No, actually we broke up," Brooke said making faces at Anna, still not meeting Peyton's eyes.

"Luke, can you take Anna into the kitchen please? I need to have a chat with Brooke."

The look Peyton gave him told him that there was no room for arguments, so taking Anna he made a quick exit to the kitchen.

When he reached the kitchen he decided he'd make them all something to eat to try distract himself from the conversation in the next room that he knew he probably shouldn't listen in on.

* * *

"Brooke, why would you and Julian break up? You've been together for over a year now and he makes you so happy." Peyton hugged her best friend tightly as Brooke's eyes welled up with tears which spilled over onto her cheeks.

"He did, he really did...but we had an argument that escalated and there was just no going back," she sobbed, heartbroken over the break up and the fact that she was only telling her best friend half the story, the half that didn't make her look like a bad friend and terrible person.

"Are you sure the two of you can't work it out? What about if I call him and-" She started until Brooke interrupted her with a terrified expression on her face.

"No! Don't call him, please don't call him, Peyton. I need to move on, I don't want to hear his voice or see a picture of him or anything, I just need to move on okay?" She said hoping that Peyton would be the good friend that Brooke had failed to be by listening to her.

"All right, I won't call him, it's just that you two gave me hope that I'd find my perfect match," she told her sadly.

"You don't need that hope anymore P. Sawyer, I think you've already found your perfect match."

* * *

Later that evening Peyton sat on the sofa with Lucas watching an old cheesy movie that she'd put on after deciding that she couldn't sleep yet, not with Brooke's words still spinning around her head. Could Lucas really be the one for her? She knew that she liked him; she knew she could even fall in love with him, but could he really be the one that she was meant to be with? How did Brooke know so certainly? She figured that there was only one way to find out.

"Do you want to go on a date?" she asked him suddenly. He nearly choked on his water which he was taking a drink of, he put his glass down clearing his throat,

"What?" he spluttered and turned to her, not sure if he'd heard her correctly.

"Do you want to go on a date with me?" she asked him again, meeting his eyes which reflected the hope she had inside her, "I mean we don't have to if you don't want to but I just thought it would be nice. I could get Brooke to babysit Anna so that would-"

His lips were suddenly on hers and everything in her mind went blank except for that one thought of why the hell haven't we done this before? It wasn't exactly a passionate kiss, but with his lips moving insistently against hers, Peyton could feel the emotion in it. The feel of his mouth on hers and the way their lips moved with together made her feel in a way she hadn't since... maybe ever.

Peyton could feel his reluctance when he pulled away, she never wanted him to stop either. Lucas' face was painted with a cheeky boyish grin, he looked as though he'd just kissed the most popular girl in school and it made her heart ache with... love? But it couldn't be that, right? You don't fall in love with someone, not after just one kiss. But God it was an amazing kiss.

"So is that a yes?" she asked him, their foreheads still touching, hoping that the heat on her cheeks wasn't as visible to him as it felt to her.

"Yes, Peyton Sawyer, I would love to go on a date with you." He grinned again before settling back onto the sofa with his arm her, his focus returning to the movie, the grin never leaving his face though. Peyton tried to focus again but all she could do was replay the kiss over and over in her mind.

* * *

While Peyton and Lucas felt like their worlds were becoming that little bit brighter, Brooke felt like hers was crashing down on her. The ringing of her phone in the hotel room seemed to deafen her; it was all she could hear. Her heart beat faster, this phone call would change her best friend's life, not to mention the amazing guy that her best friend was slowly falling for and the baby in the middle of it all.

As she answered the phone hesitantly she heard the voice of someone that her hate seemed to be growing for every second. The person on the other side greeted her but Brooke decided to get straight down to business.

"Okay I have the address but-" She began before being cut off with cruel words as the other side of the conversation became less pleasant. Brooke stumbled on her next words, pleading to the person to just leave them alone, "I- I just don't want to ruin what they have right now. Why can't you just let them be happy?"

They didn't take kindly to these words, quickly pointing out that neither of them had any reason to be happy with Lucas' girlfriend cheating on him and Peyton bringing up a baby with no father.

Brooke sighed as she replied, "As far as Anna knows, Lucas is her father so he's happy, Peyton's happy and most importantly Anna's happy."

There was a pause in which Brooke heard what she presumed was the New York traffic whizzing by before they replied with a snide comment about Anna's paternity.

Brooke felt the anger and forcefulness in the words so she tried a different approach; agreeing with them, "I know, but Peyton deserves to have a family with a guy she can trust, please don't ask me to do this."

It was no use; the person on the other side of the line was determined to get what they wanted.

She knew she was fighting for a lost cause, but she still tried one last time, "what would you gain from telling them?"

As she heard their slow laugh she cringed. The person told her exactly what they would gain and she felt tears stinging her eyes threatening to fall.

"I just have to give you the address then you'll leave me alone?"

They agreed, all they needed was an address and everything would be right again.

"Okay, have you got a pen?"

**So who was Brooke talking to? It's not that hard to guess but there are a couple of One Tree Hill characters that I don't like: Lindsey (really hate her), Jake (in this story), Dan (sometimes he's good, sometimes he's bad. It's confusing) and Psycho Derek (who doesn't hate him?). So yeah one of them is the villain in the story, it's kind of obvious because my cousin got it straight away but I thought it would make it at least a bit more interesting if I didn't say who it was straight away. Wow I talked a lot then. Sorry.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

**Thank you so much for the reviews, when I got back from my holiday last weekend and found that people had been reviewing my story it was pretty awesome and I really love hearing from people, my cousin thought I was going crazy when I checked my emails and suddenly started smiling. But I always seem to forget to thank people for reading this story even if you don't review because I know how many of you there are and it means so much that you're still reading it.**

**Also I'm sorry to LucasandPeytonTLA for promising you a chapter on Thursday but the truth is that Thursday wasn't exactly a great day for me and I just couldn't bring myself to finish this chapter because most of it is happy but I did write some depressing chapters for another LP story I'm writing so at least I was writing something.**

**This chapter isn't my favourite, actually I don't like it much at all but I had some trouble writing it so this is the best I could do.**

_Okay Peyton just breathe _she told herself as she stared at her appearance in the mirror, she was really regretting telling Brooke that she'd be okay getting ready without her. At the time it had made sense, Brooke was still upset about Julian and helping Peyton get dressed for her date with Lucas would only remind her that she wasn't on one with Julian. Brooke was coming by in fifteen minutes to collect Anna and ultimately give her designers opinion of Peyton's outfit which would probably be ignored.

Unfortunately Peyton hadn't exactly reached a decision on her attire for this evening, it's not like she hadn't been trying; all that had been spinning around her head these past three days was The Date but it seemed that no matter how many times she'd pictured their dinner she'd never been able to conjure up that perfect outfit.

The annoying thing was that she knew exactly what they would be doing, exactly what would be an appropriate outfit but she just couldn't seem to find it anywhere so there she was in her room in front of the mirror with nothing on but her underwear, just hoping that her fairy godmother would appear and give her the perfect dress. But of course that only happened in those stupid fairytales that Lucas would read to Anna at night, insisting that it would help her learn to talk.

She searched through her wardrobe again but she just didn't know what to wear, she was a mother now, she had to be more conservative, right? But at the same time she wanted Lucas to find her attractive, mind you he'd seen her on her days where she'd had two hours of sleep and baby sick all over her clothes so there was no going back now.

To be honest she was kind of disappointed that they missed out on that part of the relationship where you're still trying to impress the other person by never having a hair out of place and just getting to know them. But no, that time for them had ended the moment Lucas saw Peyton's pregnant belly. Then they'd gone straight to baby weight, stretch marks, living together and, of course, a baby.

The disappointment soon ended when she remembered that she would never take back the way things happened because if she'd have met Lucas before then she wouldn't have Anna and that was just a world not worth living in. She finally felt like she had a purpose in life, ever since she was a little girl she'd always wondered what had made her parents so content with their lives. They seemed to know what their life was and they were happy, like they had everything that they had wanted.

Now she understood.

Ever since Anna's birth she'd known that this was what she was meant to do and in a way she was grateful that Jake hadn't wanted to be a part of Anna's life because it meant that she could appreciate her so much more, most of the time she felt like she needed Anna more than Anna needed her. She was her lifeline, well her and Lucas who she needed more and more every passing day.

She was brought out of her thoughts by a quick knock at the door and the handle starting to turn.

"Don't come in!" she yelled as she attempted to find her dressing gown.

"What?" she heard Lucas' confused voice from behind the door.

"Don't come in, I'm getting changed." Just because he'd seen her with baby sick all over her clothes didn't mean that she wanted him to see her in her underwear.

"Still? You realise that we have to leave in like ten minutes."

"Well some people can't just throw a shirt on and hope it looks good."

"Okay, take as much time as you need." Lucas chuckled as he left her door and went back to playing with Anna.

She sat for another five minutes before running her hand through her wardrobe in the hope that something new would appear. Unfortunately it didn't so she just closed her eyes and grabbed the first dress that she could.

* * *

The sound of the doorbell ringing echoed in Lucas' ears as he jogged from the kitchen with Anna attempting to grab his ear and hair, something that she'd been doing a lot of recently. When he opened the door Brooke smiled at him then her eyes drifted to his shirt and she had to start laughing.

"What's so funny?" he asked, a bit shocked that the first thing she'd done when she'd arrived was to laugh at him.

"I was just thinking you might want to change that shirt, you are going on a date you know," she replied, pointing to a huge orange stain on his pale blue shirt.

"What?" He looked confused before glancing down at the stain and sighing. "It's some sort of baby food that we've been trying her on for the past couple of days, I guess she wasn't in the mood for mushed up carrot."

Anna decided that was the funniest thing ever and started to giggle uncontrollably before returning to her previous task of playing with his ear.

"Well why don't you get changed and I'll take Anna so we can start our girls' night," she offered, not really wanting to see her best friend at the minute.

"Okay but can you wait until Peyton's said goodbye to Anna before you leave otherwise she'll probably feel guilty the whole time we're on the date," Lucas asked before running to his room.

"Sure."

Brooke just wanted to get out of there; the guilt was bad enough when she looked into Anna's eyes, never mind the person who had become like a sister to her.

"Hey princess," she cooed as she looked into Anna's innocent eyes. "You're going to be okay, I promise. I know that Lucas is almost your daddy now and your mum would be so happy with him but they still have tonight, even if it's all they'll ever get they'll still have tonight. I didn't have another choice. I'm so sorry Anna."

* * *

Brooke's stinging eyes were threatening to release the tears she was trying so desperately to hold on to when she heard Peyton enter the room and she realised that she had to sort herself out, Peyton couldn't know that something was wrong, tonight she had to enjoy herself as it could be the last time for a while.

"So B. Davis, what do you think of the dress?" Peyton twirled to give Brooke the full effect.

"Well," Brooke spoke as she pretended to consider it for a second. "I would have to say that you look beautiful Peyton, Lucas is going to have a heart attack when he sees you."

"That's not even funny Brooke." She glared at her; she'd been living with Lucas for three weeks when she found the pills in a kitchen cupboard. Unfortunately she'd jumped to a few conclusions and confronted Lucas on how irresponsible it was for him to allow a newborn baby to be living with a drug addict which had led him to the confession of his heart condition.

"Sorry, I forgot." She told her guiltily, she was determined to let Peyton be happy for tonight.

"It's okay, so what time do you want to bring Anna home?" she asked, quickly changing the subject.

"I was wondering if you actually wanted me to keep her overnight, that way you can _really _enjoy the night with Lucas." She laughed at Peyton's shocked expression.

"Brooke! It's our first date," she told her in hushed tones, not knowing if Lucas would be eavesdropping. "Anna will be fine staying here tonight."

"Oh come on, you two have practically been together for the past five months and is it such a crime that I want to spend more time with my little princess Anna?" Brooke asked, the end of the sentence spoken more to Anna than Peyton.

"I guess not but are you sure? She can be a bit of a handful at night," she told her, partly because it was the truth but also because Anna hadn't spent the night away from her yet and she wasn't sure she was ready for that.

"Yeah we'll be fine, won't we my little princess Anna?" she spoke in her baby voice.

* * *

"Is it terrible that I miss her already?" she laughed as she and Lucas sat down at their table.

"Maybe... But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't feeling it too." He smiled at her and she returned it happily.

"This is so weird; I think this is actually the first time that we're eating together, like just the two of us," she pointed out.

"Yeah but as much as I love her I'm not sure I'd want Anna here on our first official date." He glanced at the menu with a suspicious look on his face which made Peyton suspect that he wanted her to ask why. So she did.

"And why's that?"

"Because then she'd be getting all of our attention and I want tonight to be all about us."

"Very cheesy." She laughed at his obviously pre-thought line. "But I still loved it."

"You see, that's what I was going for."

* * *

"I can't believe that blonde bimbo waitress has been eyeing you up all night," she told him with a joking tone whilst finishing off her chocolate cake.

"First of all you do realise that you are also blonde and honey, just because she is interested in me it doesn't mean that I have any interest in her." He reassured her unnecessarily since he knew she wasn't really jealous.

"Okay maybe I'm blonde but at least I don't throw myself at every single hot guy I see." She kept up the jealous act.

"How do you know she does that? I might be special to her." He decided to defend the woman, besides he was interested in her reaction.

"We'll see how special you are to her," she told him with a smirk on her face which made Lucas worry about what she was about to do, especially when she called the waitress over.

"Hi, can I help you?" She directed this to Lucas, practically ignoring Peyton.

But she wasn't having any of that.

"Actually we'd like the bill please; you see we need to get home to our daughter." Peyton informed her which made both Lucas and the waitresses jaws drop.

"You have a child? You look so young." Again the waitress directed the question at Lucas which only made Peyton more annoyed.

"Yeah, we do isn't that right honey?" She told the waitress whilst shooting a playful glare at Lucas.

"Yep, she's almost six months old now." Lucas told the waitress with a smile on his face as he tried not to laugh at the waitress' deflated expression.

"Oh, you should show her the picture of her in your wallet Luke, it's so cute, it was taken last week when she sat up for the first time by herself, of course while Luke was grabbing the camera she toppled over but as soon as she did it again Lucas was there with his camera, he's such an amazing father." Peyton carried on and smiled at Lucas while the waitress politely looked at the picture of Anna but she now looked embarrassed as though all she wanted was to leave the table.

Lucas shook his head at her but he was still smiling at her so she took that to mean that he didn't mind that she told her that he was Anna's father.

"I'll be right back," the waitress told them before scurrying off to get them their bill.

"So I'm Anna's dad now?" he teased even though it was something that he knew they'd have to seriously discuss at some point.

"You're the guy that's been there for her since the second she was born and I can't see that changing any time soon, can you?" she asked him uncertainly.

"Absolutely not, I don't think there's anything that can stop me loving that little girl."

They grinned at each other for a few seconds before the disgruntled waitress came over to give them their bill and Peyton suddenly decided that she couldn't wait any longer to kiss him so that's exactly what she did as she leaned over the table.

When the waitress had walked away Lucas just laughed at her and told her that she should get jealous more often.

* * *

"Okay so this is normally the part of the date where we do the whole goodnight kiss thing but I guess seeing as we both live here we can skip that bit and have some coffee inside?" Lucas asked her as they approached the door.

"That sounds great but I better still be getting a goodnight kiss," she warned him as she unlocked the door.

"Maybe, we'll see." They stepped through the door into the well light living room until he spun her around so she was facing him.

"Oh, come on you wouldn't really do that to me would you?" She pouted playfully as he held her waist.

"I don't know, I mean you have been a very possessive girlfriend tonight, I'm not sure you deserve a kiss from me," he told her as she put her arms around his neck.

"Girlfriend huh?" She glanced up at him through her eyelashes. "I don't remember saying anything about being your girlfriend."

"Well I just assumed seeing as tonight you practically told that waitress that we were married."

"I guess being your girlfriend wouldn't be too bad." She smiled at him as she leaned forward to capture his lips with her own.

It was about five minutes later when the ringing of the doorbell ended their kiss that had slowly become more passionate.

"I guess Anna was being too difficult for Brooke," Peyton sighed as she moved away from Lucas to answer the door.

"You see, it's always her that interrupts our kisses," he joked as he followed her to the door.

"Yeah but you love her anyway." She turned to smile at him.

"Yeah, yeah." He grinned at her as she opened the door.

The smile on her face soon disappeared when she saw that the person behind the door wasn't her daughter but the person she least wanted to see at this moment. His name came out in a whisper that would change their lives forever.

"Jake."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

**Thank you to those of you who reviewed, it made me feel a lot better about the last chapter. At the minute It's taking me longer than I thought it would to write chapters for this story, I'm not getting inspired with ideas for this story like I am for the other stories that I'm writing which I don't want to post until I've finished this because I'd probably end up abandoning it all together. So there will probably only be around five more chapters after this one, unless I suddenly get inspired. **

* * *

"Jake," she whispered not quite believing her eyes.

The man in front of her wasn't the Jake that she remembered. He had the same light brown hair and the same brown eyes, but he looked tired and ill. His eyes were bloodshot and his skin had a pale quality to it that it had never had before.

"Where's my daughter, Peyton? Where's Anna?" Jake asked, aggressively. He stormed past Peyton, pushing past her and in through the door. She could smell the alcohol on him.

"What happened to you?" She asked him quietly as Lucas slipped his arm protectively around her waist.

"Just tell me where Anna is, I want to see my daughter," he demanded, walking further into the house searching for the baby he'd never met.

"She's not your daughter, Jake; you signed your rights away before she was even born. How the hell do you know her name anyway?" She questioned, confused how he even knew the baby was a girl let alone her name.

"Just let me see her, she's my daughter and I want to see her." He started searching the living room for evidence of Anna and found some photos of her with Lucas which only increased his anger.

"Look, you need to get out of my house, neither of us invited you in and neither of us want you here so just leave because you're not going to see Anna," Lucas told him attempting to guide him to the door.

"I'm not leaving until I've seen my daughter, okay? Because no matter what you've been pretending she's my daughter, not yours."

"Really? Because when Peyton told you she was pregnant you didn't know so certainly that she was yours, in fact you didn't even want her to be born."

"Don't talk about things you don't know," Jake threatened.

"Look, she's not even here right now so just leave, if you seriously want to discuss Anna then you can come back when it's not the middle of the night and you are sober and if you can't do that then I suggest you leave now and never come back," Lucas insisted, Jake looked like he might hit Lucas moving threateningly towards him with his fists clenched. He thought better of it and backed down heading towards the door.

"I'll be back tomorrow, I'm going to see my daughter and there's nothing that either of you can do about it," he said, glaring at Lucas and then at Peyton. The door slammed behind him. Peyton wanted him out of the house and never to cross paths with him again but if Jake kept his promise, then tomorrow she was going to have to make some difficult decisions regarding Anna's relationship with Jake.

As soon as the door slammed shut Lucas took Peyton into his arms and she couldn't help but release the tears she'd been holding back since the moment she had seen Jake's face.

"Why is he here, Luke? Why now?" She sobbed into his shirt as he stroked her hair.

"I don't know," he admitted, he was scared for Anna and how this new development would affect her stable lifestyle, "It'll all work out, Peyton, I promise."

"We don't know that, what if he tries to take her away from me?" It was her greatest fear and Peyton knew that Lucas knew that too.

"We won't let him. And anyway, he can't do that, he signed his rights over."

"I just don't know what to do anymore."

"What do you mean? I thought you didn't want him to be a part of her life," he said, gently questioning her.

"I didn't really think I had an option, I mean, when she's older isn't she going to want to know who her real dad is?" She asked him, not sure she wanted to hear the answer.

"Maybe," he admitted, "But do you think that Jake deserves to know her?"

"I think I would have said yes to the Jake I knew last year, he made some mistakes but deep down I think he was just scared."

She sighed pulling out of Lucas' embrace, he took her hand supportively, "But the Jake that I saw today wasn't the same person I fell for, he was drunk and aggressive and I can't have Anna around that."

"I get that but..." Lucas paused.

"But what?"

"When I was younger I used to wonder about my dad, you know, like, why didn't he want me? Why did he want Nathan but not me when I was only a few months older than him? Why did he resent me so much?" He gripped her hand tightly, "And I never got the answers to those questions."

"Do you wish that your dad had been there for you from when you were born?"

"I used to but not anymore, I realised that he made a mistake and I might've been able to forgive him for it but he didn't try to correct that mistake until I was seventeen and even then I don't think his heart was in it."

"So, what do you think I should do?" She asked.

"I think you should wait and see if Jake is serious or not, if he is then I think Anna should have the chance to get to know her dad," he admitted and Peyton nodded her head reluctantly wishing Jake had never come back, "But right now I think we should go to bed and deal with this in the morning."

"Okay," Peyton said as she walked towards her room and Lucas started moving towards the kitchen to get the glass of water that he always took to bed.

"Hey, Luke," she called to him, "You're pretty amazing, you know that?"

"Well, yeah." He shrugged whilst laughing, "And you know what? I think you're pretty great too."

"Night, Luke."

"Night, Peyt."

* * *

The next morning Lucas and Peyton were cuddling on the sofa when the doorbell rang and Peyton sprang up to get her daughter.

"Anna!" Peyton squealed as she opened the door.

"And Brooke, you know your best friend? The one you couldn't care less about right now because you're just getting your baby back after her first night away, ring any bells?" Brooke laughed as Peyton took Anna from Brooke's arms and started hugging her and whispering things to her that Brooke couldn't quite hear.

It was only when Peyton started crying and Lucas put his arm around her that she knew something wasn't right and a sick feeling settled in her stomach.

"What's going on, Peyton?" She asked, terrified that she already knew the answer.

"It's Jake." She looked at Brooke with tears still in her eyes, "He wants to meet Anna."

"Oh, Peyton, I'm sure he's not serious about it." She hoped so anyway, "Anyway, just because he wants to see her it doesn't mean that he gets to, right?"

"Yeah, but how am I meant to tell Anna that her dad tried to be a part of her life but I didn't let him?" She whispered unable to take her eyes off Anna.

"I don't know, but maybe if you just ignore him then he might just forget about it and leave you alone. You don't even have to tell Anna that he tried to meet her," Brooke attempted to console Peyton and herself, she didn't want to feel the guilt she was feeling, she knew it would only get worse if Jake ruined their lives, she just couldn't handle it.

"No, I can't do that, Brooke; I don't want to lie to her. Luke and I have discussed it and if Jake is committed to getting to know Anna then we're not going to stop him but Anna comes first, and ultimately it's me that's going to decide when and where he can see her," she told Brooke.

The conversation that she and Lucas had that morning was very to the point, they had a plan of action and they were going to stick to it. They had been very organised, only getting distracted every few minutes with comforting kisses.

"Okay, well it looks like you two have a good plan then. Now, onto brighter subjects, how was the date last night?" Brooke queried, happy that she had changed the subject to something that made her forget the guilt for a moment.

"It was-" Peyton began but Lucas cut her off before she could say anymore.

"Isn't this something that you two should be discussing when I'm not in the room?" Lucas asked with a smirk.

"Good point and if you need an excuse to get out of the room then I'm pretty sure that Anna needs changing." She looked at him with puppy dog eyes that she knew he couldn't say no to.

"Fine," he sighed as he took Anna from Peyton's arms and kissed her cheek, "Come on princess; let's get out of here so that mummy and Aunty Brooke can talk."

Once Lucas had left the room Brooke and Peyton erupted in a fit of giggles.

"I can't believe how smitten he is with her," Brooke laughed.

"I know, it's a good thing she inherited my eyes because apparently Lucas just can't say no to them, she has him wrapped around her little finger. It's so sweet when he reads to her as well and the other day when we were on the beach he built a sandcastle with Anna, well obviously she didn't help at all other that picking up shells and throwing sand at him but it was still really nice of him to try."

"And there you go being all smitten with him." Brooke laughed and Peyton reacted by throwing a cushion at her.

"I'm not smitten with him, he's just such a great guy, you know?" She smiled to herself, "He's, like, the type of guy that you never think you'll meet or get the chance to be with but here I am."

"And everything's going okay with you two? You know after the whole Jake thing?" She asked hopefully.

"Yeah, actually in spite of everything going on with Jake Luke and I are doing really well. He's just being so supportive and he loves Anna so much. Normally in this situation I would expect him to get all jealous and possessive but he just wants to make everything better for us, the three of us."

"He's an amazing guy, Peyton... don't let him go."

"Trust me, I don't plan to, he makes me feel something that I've never felt before, Brooke, it feels like I've known him all my life but at the same time I learn something new about him every day."

"Good for you, Peyton, you deserve to be happy. Now, I'm sorry but I've got to get going," she told her as she started to stand up.

"Oh, are you sure you can't wait until Jake's here? I could really do with the support," she asked nervously.

"I'm sorry, I have some things to do at the store and I can't put them off any longer otherwise my mum will totally freak out," she lied easily, she couldn't be around Jake, not without revealing everything.

"Okay then, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then?" She asked, slightly confused at Brooke's sudden departure.

"Yeah, maybe, I'll call you later."

* * *

When the inevitable knock at the door was heard, Peyton's worried glance fell on Lucas so he did all he could. He held out his hand which she took gratefully and they walked to the door together.

When they opened the door Jake was looking slightly better than the night before but not much.

"Look, before we get into this I just need you to know that Anna is taking a nap at the moment so we need to keep our voices low, okay?" Peyton warned him as she let him into the house.

"Okay," Jake agreed.

"So basically Lucas and I have decided that-"

"Wait 'Lucas and I'? Why does he get any say in this, he's nothing to her," Jake commented whilst glaring at Lucas.

"Because whether you like it or not I've been helping Peyton with Anna since she was born and Peyton and I are in a relationship," Lucas informed him as politely as he could.

"So your boyfriend gets a say in what happens with our daughter?"

"Yes' he does, but that's not what we're here to discuss today." She changed the subject swiftly,

"Basically we need to know that you're serious about getting to know Anna, because she can't be wondering every year if her dad's going to remember her birthday."

"So, let me prove that I am, I want to get to know my daughter," he insisted, "Just let me spend the day with her."

Jake stood up and was about to go searching for Anna when both Lucas and Peyton stood as well and sent him warning glances.

"Look, Jake, I know that you want to meet Anna but there is no way you're spending any time with her alone," she told him before he sat back down with an irritated expression, "Lucas and I have discussed this and we think that it's best if you wait a few more weeks, just to make sure that this is what you really want."

"And if it is what I want?" he questioned bitterly, not happy at all that he had to wait a few more weeks.

"Then you can see Anna under the supervision of either me, Lucas or Brooke, my best friend," she told him, this was the plan that she and Lucas had agreed to and if Jake didn't like it then he wasn't going to see Anna, it was as simple as that.

"Why do I need-"

"Because you don't know how to care for a baby and we do," Lucas replied before the question had even been finished.

Jake nodded, clearly unhappy that he needed to be babysat.

"So do we have an agreement?" Peyton asked him directly, "In two weeks you can come back here and if you have sorted yourself out and are committed to knowing Anna then you can meet her."

"Okay, two weeks," he replied before hesitantly asking what he had wanted since he'd walked into the house, "Could I just see her for a minute now? She's sleeping so she won't even know I'm there."

Lucas and Peyton glanced at each other before coming to a silent understanding.

"Follow us," Peyton said before taking Lucas' hand and leading Jake to Anna's room where she was still sleeping.

Jake peered into her crib before turning to Peyton.

"She looks like you," he commented with a despondent expression.

"I get that a lot," she replied with a soft smile but concerned eyes. Jake didn't seem to be affected as much as she'd expected at seeing his baby for the first time; she expected a reaction like Lucas' had been: bright, happy and hopeful.

She just didn't know what to think about Jake's reaction other than the fact that it made her concerned about how he would behave with Anna.

* * *

Once Jake had left and Peyton had finished crying and venting her concerns to Lucas, Anna woke up and Peyton brought her to the living room so that she and Lucas could play with her and pretend that everything they had built wasn't about to change.

"Hey, Peyton," Lucas started after a moment of inspiration, "What do you think about going away for a while?"

"What? You mean like on a vacation?" she asked, curiously.

"Yeah, it would take our minds off everything going on with Jake and it would be nice to just get away for a while don't you think?" he asked hopefully, he'd wanted Peyton to see where he had grown up for a while now.

"Yeah, okay, where do you want to go?"

"How do you feel about a small town called Tree Hill?" he asked with a smirk settled on his face.

"I think that sounds perfect."

* * *

**You didn't really think that I would end Lucas and Peyton's relationship before it had even started, did you? Drama doesn't always equal a breakup and I think that Lucas and Peyton are at their best when they are together so I generally try to keep them that way.**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

**I'm back at sixth form now so I'm not sure what that will mean for updating, especially seeing as it's my last year before university but I'll try to update when I can. It's been weird going back so far, it turns out that if you don't do French for six weeks then you forget a lot but I've been watching Les Frères Scott (OTH in French) every night so hopefully I'll get it all back and be able to spend more time writing. **

**Thank you to those of you who reviewed, I love reviews and PM's so feel free to ask me anything you want because I promise that I'll reply. **

**Any mistakes in this chapter are all my fault because although my cousin did her usual job of fixing everything, I had some trouble receiving her email so there will be lots of mistakes.**

**So read it, hopefully enjoy it and leave a review if you're feeling generous.**

_New York – 2 weeks ago_

_Brooke and Julian were in their New York apartment, arguing for what seemed like the hundredth time since she had arrived from L.A. and as usual the subject of the argument was the fact that Brooke was living in L.A. and Julian in New York. _

"_I just don't see why you have to be there all the time Brooke, Peyton is a big girl and she has Lucas with her. She doesn't need you." Julian threw his hands in the air as Brooke watched him exasperatedly. _

"_Peyton has been my best friend since we were kids, she's just had a baby and I'm the closest thing to family that she's got right now," she replied furiously, it was true that since Peyton's dad had disowned her she didn't have anyone else._

"_That doesn't mean that you have to put your life on hold for her, I don't know how much longer we can have a long distance relationship without falling apart." It killed him to say it but when Brooke moved so far away it was pretty much impossible to have a relationship when they both had very time consuming jobs._

"_I don't want to break up with you Julian, I love you so much."_

"_I love you too Brooke but we need to figure some things out and until then I think we should just take some time to figure it out." _

"_So what do we do now?"_

"_I have to go to London to discuss the script for that new movie and when I get back we can talk."_

_As Julian turned to leave Brooke called him back._

"_I miss you every single day, Julian. Never doubt that."_

"_I miss you too Brooke, I just don't know how much longer we can miss each other for."_

* * *

"Lucas!" They heard a high pitched scream from somewhere and glanced at each other before laughing lightly.

Suddenly there were two people rushing towards them, Haley jumped at Lucas and hugged him fiercely while Jamie wanted to see Anna so Peyton knelt down to allow Jamie to greet her properly.

"It's so good to see you Luke; seriously it's been like a year since you came home." Haley grinned at him as she pulled away from the hug.

"Sorry Hales there's just been a lot going on," he told her while smiling at the sight of Peyton and Anna interacting with Jamie.

"I'll bet." She smiled knowingly.

Peyton stood and smiled at Haley, they'd kept in contact for the last five months and Haley was considered the expert when she was worried about something with Anna.

"Hey Hales, it's great to see you again."

"You too Peyton and how's little baby Anna who isn't so little anymore?" she said in her baby voice as she took Anna from Peyton's arms.

"Well it turns out that Anna isn't a big fan of flying so she's probably about to go to sleep because she spent the past five hours crying," Peyton said as she took Lucas' hand and they started to exit the airport.

"I bet you two enjoyed that." She laughed at Lucas and Peyton's identical glares. "Anyway we were thinking that we could go to your mum's now but you should stay at mine and Nathan's because we have more room and with the baby and everything."

"Yeah that sounds good. I can't wait for Lily to meet Peyton and Anna; she's going to love them," he grinned at Haley as Peyton rolled her eyes.

"Yeah she's not the only one, Karen and Keith are so excited to meet you Peyton, obviously Luke's been talking about you nonstop so she already knows a lot about you," Haley told her which made her blush before smiling coyly at Lucas.

"I'm really looking forward to meeting them too and seeing where Luke grew up." After she read An Unkindness of Ravens she'd been fascinated by Lucas' teenage years after everything with Dan and Nathan and Haley getting married at such a young age. She couldn't wait for Lucas to show her himself all of the places that meant so much to him.

"Hey Uncle Luke," Jamie said with bright eyes. "When you show Aunt Peyton and Anna the rivercourt can I come with you?"

All of the adults were shocked that Jamie had referred to Peyton as Aunt Peyton but when Peyton smiled at him they figured that she was okay with it.

"Of course you can buddy, we need you to show Peyton how to play because she's never played basketball before."

"Seriously?" Jamie asked with a bewildered expression, when Lucas nodded his head Jamie walked over to Peyton and looked her straight in the eye before saying, "it's okay Aunt Peyton, I can help."

Peyton just laughed then smiled at Lucas, wishing that she'd known his family her whole life.

* * *

"Lucas, I've missed you so much," Karen whispered as she hugged him fiercely.

"I missed you too mum," he told her as he pulled back and took Peyton's free hand since one was occupied with holding Anna. "Mum, this is Peyton and Anna."

"It's so nice to meet you, Lucas has told us so much about you," she said politely as Peyton just smiled nervously.

"It's really great to meet you too," she said shyly.

"Right now there's no point us all being stood outside, come in and you can meet Keith and Lily." She ushered them inside watching Lucas and Peyton carefully as he smiled encouragingly at her.

As Peyton took in the homely feel of the house a five year old girl who was drawing in the kitchen with her dad jumped up and ran to Lucas.

"Luke!" she squealed.

"Does everyone have that reaction when they see you?" she asked as she smiled at the little girl hugging Lucas.

Lucas grinned back at her before Lily whispered softly, "I missed you Lukey."

"I missed you too."

* * *

"So are you going to tell us the reason for this impromptu visit or are you just going to leave us hanging?" Haley questioned as they sat around the kitchen table while Jamie and Anna were playing in the garden.

Lucas and Peyton looked at each other, engaged in a silent conversation before Lucas replied to her, "there's some stuff going on with Jake, Anna's dad and we just needed to get away for a while."

"Is everything okay?" Haley asked concernedly.

"I think it will be." Peyton smiled optimistically while Lucas squeezed her hand encouragingly.

"So when are you going back?" Karen asked Lucas directly.

"We're not really sure," he replied, "we have to be back in LA by next week so anytime up until then really."

"Well I hope you do, I bet there's loads of people that want to see you while you're here." Karen smiled at him, thinking of Whitey and his old friends from the rivercourt.

"Yeah I can't wait to see them either but I just want to spend the next couple of days around you guys and showing Peyton round Tree Hill."

"Are you going to see Lindsey while you're here?" Haley asked him while looking down and fidgeting with her hands.

"Probably not, I don't really see the point." He shrugged which Peyton was ashamed to admit she was relieved at.

"It might be nice to catch up, she's had a tough couple of months Luke," his mother told him as though she was attempting to give him a message that he should understand.

"Maybe, I'll see if I have time later on this week." He sighed indifferently while Peyton's eyes narrowed, she felt like they were trying to push him back to Lindsey and although she didn't want to play the jealous girlfriend role, especially since it was her ex that was in their lives recently, she just really wanted their relationship to work. He meant so much to her and had become one of her best friends at the same time as becoming the guy of her dreams; he was turning out to be everything she wanted.

* * *

_New York_

"_Hey are you going to do your job and get me another drink or just stand there looking pretty?" Brooke asked the bartender as she drank the last drop of white wine with lemonade from her glass. She'd been coming to this bar since the night Julian had left, it was actually where they met, she supposed that subconsciously she was hoping he'd come back._

_It was just after the bartender had given her the drink when she saw someone sitting on the stool next to her out of the corner of her eye._

"_Can I have a beer?" the gruff voice asked the bartender._

_She turned to look at the man and she immediately recognised him, she'd only met him once but she'd seen plenty of photos of him wrapped around her best friend and he'd made enough of an impression on her by now._

"_Shouldn't you be off living your life instead of drowning your sorrows about the daughter you don't want?" Brooke asked him with hate in her eyes._

"_What the hell? Do I know you?" Jake asked her grumpily testily._

"_Brooke Davis, we met at Peyton's last year?" she questioned him as though it should be obvious._

"_Oh," he replied._

"_You really don't care do you?" she questioned him incredulously, "you have a beautiful baby girl and you couldn't care less that she thinks of another guy as her daddy."_

"_You're lying, Peyton didn't move on." He glared into her eyes._

"_So you think she's still pining after you? The guy who left her alone to deal with a baby? The guy who told her to get rid of the best thing that ever happened to her?" she yelled at him, drawing attention to other people in the bar._

_She stood up and leaned close to him before placing something on the surface of the bar. "Peyton is happy, your daughter is happy. And now you have to deal with the fact that you can't be a part of that." _

_She then turned away and left the building._

_Jake picked up the photo that she had placed in front of him, it was what appeared to be a family photo with his daughter sat between Peyton and some guy that he wanted to punch for putting his arm around Peyton._

_He got out of his seat and ran out of the bar with the picture firmly in his grasp._

* * *

Later that night while Peyton was helping Lily and Jamie with some finger painting Karen took the opportunity to talk to Lucas alone, except for Anna who was happily in Lucas' arms.

"Do you want to hold her mum? I don't think you have yet," Lucas asked her while passing Anna to his mother who was smiling at the six month old baby.

"She's adorable and she looks so much like Peyton." Karen looked up to see her son gazing at the baby and it worried her.

"Are you sure you're doing the right thing here Luke?" she asked him reluctantly because she could see how happy he was right now.

"What do you mean?" he asked her curiously because he thought of all people it would be him mum that understood the most.

"You really love Anna don't you?" she asked him and he nodded quietly in response. "I don't want this to sound harsh Lucas but you have to realise that Anna isn't your daughter."

"I know that mum but I don't see the problem with me being there for her and Peyton." He sighed.

"It's not about that Lucas, it's about the way that you look at them both and I'm scared that one day Peyton's going to want Anna's real father in her life again and what happens then? Both Peyton and Anna are gone and you have nothing left," Karen said sadly, she could see that it wasn't wanted to hear but at the end of the day she was only trying to protect him.

"I'm sorry mum but I can't see that happening, Peyton doesn't have feelings for Jake anymore, she hasn't in a really long time," he told her confidently.

"He's the father of her baby Luke; she's always going to have feelings for him."

"So are you saying that you still have feelings for Dan?" he asked her coldly.

"No but I will always be grateful to him because he gave me you and that's something that you can't replace."

"Why not? There's a lot more to being a father than DNA and you know that better than anyone," he pointed out to her angrily.

"You're right, you're uncle Keith is very much a father to you but we were close friends before I even got pregnant with you, it's different."

"Look mum, I know you're just trying to protect me but I don't need protecting from Peyton. She might have a baby and that might not be okay with you but it's okay with me and I'm not going to change my mind about her because this is what I want."

"And what about next month Lucas? You need to think about Anna and Peyton too here because they need stability. What if sometime in the future you decide that you want to have a family of your own and Anna loses another father?"

"That won't happen."

"Why not Lucas? I know that you're happy with Peyton but what makes you so certain that this relationship isn't going to end like all the other ones you've been in?"

"Because I'm in love with her."

* * *

**Sorry SpanaHana, I guess that wasn't exactly what you wanted when you asked for Karen but don't worry she'll redeem herself.**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

**A lot of the inspiration behind this chapter comes from my very cute five month old cousin. And I obviously have to thank my other cousin for correcting my mistakes in this chapter so unlike the last one I won't miss out any words or forget to delete words.**

**The rest of the inspiration for this chapter came from you guys, because reviews make me want to finish this story even though I'm lacking motivation to write it.**

* * *

"Why are mummy and Luke being so loud?" Lily asked Peyton and she had to admit that she was thinking the same thing herself, while she couldn't tell exactly what they were saying she could hear their raised voices, it sounded tense whatever they were talking about.

"I don't know, Lily, they're probably just being silly," she replied, knowing that it wasn't the case.

"I wish they'd stop it, I can't paint right if they're being noisy," Jamie said very seriously which Peyton fought the urge to laugh at, she couldn't wait for Anna to start speaking but so far all she'd managed was an occasional mumble of sounds.

She looked over at the kids and decided that they were right; she needed to stop the arguing or whatever was going on in there, "I'll tell you what, why don't I go and sort them out and then we can finish your beautiful pictures?"

Jamie nodded enthusiastically and Lily just smiled as Peyton rose from her seat and walked towards the closed living room door, she paused a step before the door and attempted to listen in.

"... going to want Anna's real father in her life again and what happens then? Both Peyton and Anna are gone and you have nothing left." She was shocked at what she was hearing; she hadn't realised that this would be an issue for Karen, she just assumed that since she'd been in a very similar position herself that she'd be more understanding.

"I'm sorry, mum but I can't see that happening, Peyton doesn't have feelings for Jake anymore, she hasn't in a really long time." Peyton's heart swelled as she heard Lucas defend her.

She listened to the argument move back and forth between Lucas and Karen and was on the verge of tears until Lucas' last words silenced Karen completely and made Peyton's heart skip a beat.

"Because I'm in love with her."

It wasn't something that they'd said to each other, she knew that it was coming eventually but they had only been on one date and that had kind of ended with her ex intruding on their lives. The thing that surprised her most though was the warm feeling inside of her but her increased heart rate reminded her that it was far too soon to be declaring love. Because it was too soon, it had to be too soon right?

Apparently Karen was also stunned to silence because she could no longer hear any voices on the other side of the door so she walked back to the kitchen where Jamie and Lily seemed please that there were no longer two loud voices echoing through the house.

"In love with her?" Karen asked him, after the silence had gone on for over a minute.

"Yeah, I am, mum and even though she's not ready to admit it yet I think she's in love with me too. This isn't some fling that we're going to get tired of one day, it's something special like what you have with Uncle Keith," he told her gently.

Karen looked down at Anna and found her trying to reach the newspaper on the coffee table rather than the toy that was right in front of her. She smiled to herself when she realised that she was falling in love with the baby girl a little bit more every second and she guessed that's how Lucas felt about Peyton.

"I just want what's best for you, Luke."

"Peyton's what's best for me, mum and Anna too, they mean the world to me." Lucas looked up at his mother with a hopeful expression.

"I hope you're right, Luke because if you and Peyton broke up then I don't want to know what'll happen." She smiled at him sadly.

"Does this mean that you're going to get to know, Peyton?" He asked her, his eyes glinting with hope.

"I guess it does." She laughed at him before tickling Anna and watching her giggle in delight.

* * *

_New York_

"_Brooke wait." She heard his voice behind her just as a cab pulled up._

"_What do you want?" She asked him, fiercely._

"_I just want to talk, okay?" He replied, gently._

"_Well, I don't want to talk to you," she told him, her voice far too loud for the street that they were in._

"_Please, Brooke?"_

_She saw the look of desperation in his eyes and gave a brief nod, granting him permission to speak._

"_Look, I just want to meet her,"_

"_Well there's no way that Peyton would let that happen, especially not when you're getting drunk in bars every night."_

"_Says the girl whose words are slurring right now."_

"_Look, Jake, I don't want to be having this conversation okay?" She told him yanking the cab door open._

"_Just tell me her address." He demanded._

"_Why would I do that?" She asked him, just wanting to go home._

"_Because we were happy back then, I want to feel that again."_

_The statement froze her._

"_Get in the car," she ordered him._

_There was an icy silence in the cab that didn't break until they reached Brooke's apartment._

"_Do you really think that I care about your happiness?" She yelled at him moving closer to him in a threatening manner._

"_Brooke, I..." he began stuttering an apology but was cut off by a drunk Brooke who wasn't finished with him yet._

"_I don't care if you're happy or not because my best friend spent what should have been the best time of her life being miserable because she felt like nobody loved her, like nobody wanted her." She kept moving towards him and he kept stepping back slowly until his back reached the wall behind him._

"_I made a mistake," he defended himself._

"_You see there's my problem, I can't work out if the mistake you're talking about is the fact that you walked away from your daughter before she was even born or the fact that she even exists in the first place." By the end of her rant she was poking his chest violently._

"_Stop it, just stop it okay." He took her hands in his to stop her from hitting him again._

_As her hands were restrained she attempted to use her last weapon that she hoped would bring him guilt, her eyes. But as she looked into his eyes, wishing that she could see guilt, she only found sadness and in her drunken, hazy state it made her want him to have the happiness he'd found with Peyton again._

* * *

"So, are you going to tell me what you and your mum talked about today?" She asked him as they settled into bed with Anna in a crib at the end of their bed in Nathan and Haley's guest room.

"Um..." He looked at her, debating whether he should tell her the truth or not.

"It's okay, Luke, I heard," she murmured, quietly.

"Which bits did you hear exactly?" He asked with a wince, hoping she hadn't heard anything that she could use to tease him later on.

"Just the bits where your mum didn't approve of me," she muttered dishearteningly while looking away from him.

"Peyt," he sighed but she didn't respond, "Come on, just look at me?"

She turned her head and when he saw the tears threatening to fall from her eyes he held her close and whispered to her, "She was just being protective okay? It doesn't mean she doesn't like you or Anna, she just wants what she thinks is best for me."

"I know that and I know that I shouldn't care this much but she's your mum, Lucas and I just wanted her to like me so much. I haven't had a mum in a really long time and my dad doesn't want anything to do with me...I just wanted some sort of parent even if they're not mine," she admitted quietly. She pulled away from his embraced but his hands lingered on her waist.

"You could still have that sort of relationship with her; she promised me she'd give you a chance, Peyton, that she'd give us a chance," he told her, his hands not moving from her waist.

"I just don't want anything else to come between us, I mean we've only just got together and now Jake is here and your mum and Lindsey," she explained before Lucas abruptly interrupted her,

"Lindsey? What does she have to do with anything?" He questioned, hoping that she wasn't jealous, there was no reason for her to be jealous, whatever had been between him and Lindsey was over.

"She lives here, Luke and everyone seems to want you to see her so I guess they want you to get back together," she told him revealing her insecurity.

"Trust me, I'm not getting back together with Lindsey, she's not as perfect as you think, she cheated on me Peyt, she had another man's baby. That's not something that I can forgive and anyway I don't really care about that anymore, all I care about is you and Anna and looking after our family."

"Our family?" She murmured with a shy smile,her Lindsey fears put to firmly to rest.

"Well... yeah I mean we live together and we're in a relationship and Anna's your daughter so I guess we are kind of a family right?" Lucas explained hesitantly, unsure of himself.

"Yeah we are," she whispered with a smile, as she settled down, her head resting on Lucas's chest, "It's just a shame that we have an annoying Jake to add to our family."

"Yeah, but you know that he doesn't have to be a part of it if you don't want him to be," Lucas pointed out.

"I know but I can't let my feelings about Jake affect Anna, I just want her to be happy." She smiled as she looked at Anna sleeping in her crib at the end of their bed.

"Me too, all I want is for us to be happy, you and me and Anna." He kissed her softly.

"You need to stop being so perfect you know?" She teased him, gazing into his captivating blue

eyes.

"I'm far from perfect." He replied surely.

"Nope, you're pretty much the perfect guy and I'm so glad that you're all mine." She grinned and pinched his cheeks.

"I like the sound of being all yours."

"I love you."

He blinked to make sure that he'd heard her correctly because she had literally blurted it out.

"Really?" He asked in his haze of confusion.

She seemed taken aback by his question as she slowly took her gaze from his eyes and looked at the bed sheets, "Well yeah I mean I just do so I thought I should tell you. Obviously you don't have to say it back or anything but I just thought you should know."

He lifted her chin gently with his thumb so that their eyes were once again locked and spoke softly, "I love you too, Peyton Sawyer."

"Really?" She asked, her excitement clear despite her intention to cover it up as attempt to mock him.

"Yup and I think I have for a while now," he told her after laughing at her sarcastic question.

"Me too, so now what?" She asked him.

"What do you mean?" he replied, confused.

"Well, we just told each other that we love each other but at home we're still sleeping in separate rooms and I was thinking that Anna should probably have her own room but obviously that's your choice seeing as it's your house so I was just wondering what do we do now?" She murmured speaking quickly, she twisted her hands together as she realised she was gesturing with them.

"Peyton, it's not just my house okay? You and Anna live there too so it's a decision that needs to be made together but I was thinking that maybe you could move into my room then Anna could have your room all to herself and we could decorate it so it looks like a proper baby's room." He smiled at her reassuringly.

"See, there you go being all perfect again," she told him with the grin that refused to leave still plastered on her face.

"I love you, Peyt." He couldn't help but say it as he watched her eyes becoming heavy with sleep until she was struggling to keep the open.

"I love you too, Luke, more than I thought I could love anyone."

* * *

_Julian walked into his apartment that he shared with Brooke, he'd only been away for a few days before realising that he didn't want to live without her. He walked into the bedroom where he assumed that she'd be sleeping peacefully, to find her in bed with another guy._

_He felt the pain in his heart as Brooke's betrayal threatened to crush him._

_Anger overcame him and he shook Brooke awake, it was painful to see the happiness radiate from her face when she saw him there but her happiness turned to confusion as she realised that he wasn't smiling back._

"_Julian?" She asked him, Julian watched as the night before dawned on her, realisation and horror creeping into her eyes. She turned to see Jake in her bed as he had been last night._

"_Why, Brooke?" Julian shouted angrily, which woke Jake. _

"_Julian, I'm so sorry, I was drunk and it just happened," she cried, tears falling onto her cheeks._

"_Do you even know who the hell he is, Brooke?" he asked her, she flinched back at his raised voice and he was glad she was a little afraid of him._

"_He's..." Brooke began, but she knew what would happen if she told him who he was._

"_I'm Jake Jagielski."_

_They both looked over to him when he spoke, up until then he had been silent and Brooke wished it had stayed that way._

"_Jake?" Julian spat angrily, "The same Jake that abandoned Peyton when she was pregnant?"_

"_I'm sorry, Julian, it didn't mean anything."_

"_Whatever, I'm leaving," he told her as he turned to leave the room._

_She jumped out of bed, hastily found her dressing gown and followed him before grabbing his arm and spinning him round to face her._

"_Please don't go, I don't want you to go," she cried clinging to his chest._

"_Brooke, you slept with another man but more than that you slept with your best friend's ex-boyfriend and the father of her child, the same best friend that meant so much to you that you had to live near her and abandon our relationship."_

"_I didn't abandon it, Julian, you did," she yelled at him, "You were the one who left when things got tough, not me."_

"_You slept with Anna's father, Brooke; I think that means that you're the one in the wrong here not me," Julian yelled back and the next thing they knew Jake had appeared in front of them with a questioning glance._

"_Her name's Anna?" He asked them both with a confused look on his face._

"_Yeah it is," Julian told him in disgust before turning to Brooke, "Congratulations, you may have just ruined your best friend's life and the life of an innocent little girl, be proud of that."_

* * *

**So there isn't as much Leyton in this chapter as I'd hoped but I think the next chapter should make up for it if it goes to plan.**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews, I know that a lot of you didn't like the fact that Brooke and Jake slept together and I didn't like writing it but there is a purpose otherwise I wouldn't have done it.**

**I re-read my last chapter and I realised that I didn't really explain why Brooke slept with Jake so I'm going to try to do that now. Basically Brooke thought in her drunken state that Jake was upset about Peyton not being in his life in the same way that she was about Julian, she really thought that Jake cared for Peyton like she did for Julian so she just wanted to comfort him and it went too far, I hope that explains it a bit better but if not then PM me and I'll try to tell you what I thought when I wrote it.**

**This is the last chapter before Lucas, Peyton and Anna go back to LA and it's very drama-free which I'm hoping you guys will like seeing as I don't think you liked the Brooke/Jake drama.**

* * *

"So this is the famous rivercourt?" she asked him as she stepped onto the tarmac slowly.

"The one and only," he confirmed while being dragged onto the court that he grew up on. "I know that Jamie wanted to bring you here but seeing as my mum is looking after Anna I thought today could be our day."

"I like that idea." She kissed him softly on the lips and smiled up at him.

"So what do you want to do now then?" he asked her.

"Well what would you have done here when you were in high school?" she responded while playing with their hands.

"Well I would have either been playing basketball," he told her and she nodded understandingly. "Or I would have been making out with my girlfriend over there on the bleachers."

"Well we don't have a basketball," she told him coyly.

"I do believe you're right." He pulled her towards him so that their bodies were pressed against each other.

"So I guess we're just going to have to make other arrangements," she laughed as he took her lips with his and held her hips tightly.

It was about ten minutes later when they heard someone clear their throat behind them. They pulled away from each other and saw an awkwardly stood Nathan staring at the sky in an attempt to make it look like he didn't even notice what they were doing.

"Hey Nathan," Peyton greeted him whilst awkwardly attempting to make her hair look like it hadn't just had Lucas's fingers running through it.

"Hi Peyton it's um great to see you again," he told her uncomfortably while moving to hug her.

"How've you been little brother?" Lucas asked as casually as possible.

"I'm good, especially since I got back yesterday I really missed Haley and Jamie while I was away." Nathan told them both before adding with a smirk, "I see that you two have also been doing good."

Peyton stuck her tongue out at Nathan while Lucas just grinned at his girlfriend.

"Yes we have," Lucas told him, the goofy grin never leaving his face.

"I'd tell you two to get a room but seeing as you're staying at my house I'd really rather you didn't," Nathan laughed.

Peyton tucked her head into Lucas' shoulder to avoid recognition of her red cheeks but it was already too late.

"Aw looks who's getting all embarrassed, it's cute really," Nathan teased her.

"Shouldn't you be spending time with your wife and son?" Lucas asked him hoping to get back to his alone time with Peyton.

"I already did, it's just been a while since I've seen my brother and his girlfriend so I thought I'd say hi," he told them while a grin crossed his face as he thought of his family. "So where's my beautiful sort-of-niece?"

"She's with my mum today but we're all having dinner later so you can see her then okay?" Peyton asked him and smiled when he called Anna his sort-of-niece.

"I'll look forward to it, so what are we doing now?" Nathan asked them knowing that he was crashing their day but he wanted to see their reactions.

"_We,_" Lucas gestured towards himself and Peyton, "will be spending the day together on our own while _you _go home to spend time with your wife who missed you a lot."

"Fine, fine I can take a hint," he laughed and turned back to his car, "I'll see you guys later."

"So now that he's gone can we get back to what we were doing before?" he asked her with a boyish grin on his face before leaning in to kiss her but at the last minute she turned her head so his lips hit her cheek rather than her mouth as he had intended.

"Sorry but no," she told him firmly before taking his hand and heading towards the path. "You promised me you'd show me around Tree Hill today so that's what we're doing."

"Oh god, what have I got myself into?" he asked while laughing at her strategic view on discovering Tree Hill.

"Come on, I want to see everything," she called to him from the side of the road.

"Okay well first things first, we want to be going the other way." He turned her on the spot so that they were facing the way to the beach, they then walked hand in hand until they reached the shore.

* * *

"It's really nice here, we should bring Anna tomorrow she'd love it," Peyton commented as they sat on the sand of Tree Hill's beach watching the world go by in front of them.

"She goes to the beach all the time at home," he laughed at her.

"Yeah but it's different here."

"How so?"

"This place feels like somewhere you'd bring your family," she told him, gazing into his eyes and he understood exactly what she meant, he liked living in LA but he _loved _Tree Hill, it was where he'd always pictured raising his family.

"Yeah we should come more often; I want Anna to be close to my family."

"I want that too, she doesn't have any family on my side so it would be nice for her to know her family here."

"Are you sure that you can't work things out with your dad?" he asked her gently, this was probably the only topic that they'd never approached.

"I don't know, sometimes I think about contacting him but the things he said to me, they hurt me so much." Her eyes started welling with tears.

He held her tightly and whispered soothing words in her ear.

"I was never that close with my dad, he was always working when I was growing up but I never thought that he would abandon me like that," she admitted.

"You could contact him," he suggested gently. "He might have come to his senses and realised that there is nothing that he wants more than to be a grandfather."

"One can only wish," she told him sadly. "But seeing as he's the one who made the mistake I think he should be the one to make the first move."

"I guess that's fair, let's just hope he hasn't taken your absence in his life as badly as Jake did."

"Do you think he's going to change?" Peyton asked him abruptly with furrowed brows.

"Jake?" His voice rose in surprise, "I don't really know, he was in pretty bad shape when we left but I do know that now he has something to fight for."

"I know it's selfish but I'm kind of hoping he hasn't changed so that I can stop him from seeing Anna without any guilt," she told him with a small smile.

"One can only wish."

* * *

As Lucas and Peyton walked up the pathway towards Lucas' childhood home she squeezed his hand tightly.

"Hey." He turned her to face him, "calm down okay? It's just my mum."

"Yeah your mum who doesn't like me," she muttered.

"She does like you," he insisted.

The look she threw at him made him take a step back.

"Okay she doesn't not like you," he attempted. "She likes Anna and seeing as she is exactly like you she must like you a little bit at least."

"Everyone likes Anna, she's like a magnet or something," she replied grumpily.

"And she'll like you too, you just have to give it time." He hugged her gently before they knocked on the door and Peyton plastered a fake smile on her face.

The door opened to reveal Karen who was bouncing Anna on her hip which made Peyton's fake smile transform into a real one.

"Hey Anna," she said in her baby voice before taking her little girl from Karen's arms.

"Hi kids," Karen spoke as she smiled softly at the sight of Peyton interacting with her daughter.

"How was she?" Peyton asked without tearing her gaze from her laughing daughter.

"She's pretty much a perfectly behaved baby," Karen confirmed.

"Yeah when she's with other people she is," Lucas muttered

Peyton hit his chest softly in response giving him a playful glare.

"Well she is!" he defended, "she still seems to like screaming for no reason at all but it's only ever when there's no one but us to see it."

"Hmm, I don't believe you." Karen smiled at the little girl.

"Okay well we have to get over to Nathan and Haley's now otherwise we'll be late for dinner," Lucas excused them.

"Alright well I'll see you soon," Karen said as she hugged her son goodbye then just before they left the house Karen called them back. "Peyton, I was wondering if maybe you'd like to come over for coffee tomorrow morning, we could have a nice chat?"

Peyton couldn't stop the grin that appeared on her face. "Yeah sure, I'd like that."

* * *

"I don't think I've ever seen Nathan this fascinated with a doll before tonight," Haley giggled with Peyton on the sofa after their meal as they watched Lucas and Nathan entertain Anna with the doll that Brooke had bought her last month.

"I just can't wait until Luke has to sit and watch every single Disney princess film that's ever been made," Peyton laughed back.

She really was looking forward to seeing her daughter's relationship with Lucas develop as she got older; she hoped that they would always be this close.

"God I wish I could see that," Haley said as she sipped her wine.

"You know we can hear you two talking about us and we don't appreciate it," Lucas said from across the room, keeping his eyes on Anna and the doll.

"Oh we know," Peyton told him smiling.

"You seem really happy," Haley commented in quieter tones.

"I am, I feel like I finally have the family I always wanted," she admitted still watching Lucas and Anna play together.

"Lucas seems the same way." Haley nudged her gently with her elbow which made Peyton blush.

"He is pretty wonderful and I couldn't ask for a better father for Anna," she told her trying to hide her embarrassment.

"Have you two talked about that?" Haley asked curiously. "Anna thinking of Lucas as her dad?"

"Before Jake came back I told Lucas that I wanted him to be Anna's dad but Jake just changed everything. I still want it but it's not about what I want, it's about what's best for Anna and if Jake proves that he's going to take being a father seriously then I don't have much choice," she told her, trying to keep the smile on her face.

"Well whatever happens with Jake she'll always be loved because I can see how much she means to you," Haley said to try cheer her up before clarifying, "to both of you."

"When I look at her today I just can't how I could have been so upset when I found out about her, she's brought so much laughter and happiness into my life." Her smile was firmly back in place having been reminded that it was only because of Anna's untimely arrival that she was with Lucas today. "She's our little miracle."

* * *

**Wow that was cheesy, oops! I'm not sure when the next chapter will be, I'm pretty busy this week because my Dad's in America and it's assessment week (we've only been back at school for a month yet they're giving us loads of tests. Can any of you make sense of that?)**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

**Okay so the last chapter was boring and I'm fully aware of that but the reason was that I wasn't sure what to do with the story because of the reactions to the Brooke/Jake part of the story but now I've decided to just go ahead with what I originally planned because it's a bit too late to change it now, seriously there aren't that many chapters left, like only three or four.**

**Thank you to the reviewers, you make me smile.**

* * *

Lucas and Peyton entered their house for the first time in over a week with a sleeping baby wrapped up in Peyton's arms and two suitcases held in Lucas'.

"Happy to be home?" Lucas asked her as he unlocked the door.

"No," she snapped, closing the door awkwardly behind her.

"Do you want to tell me why?" He asked, glancing down so he wouldn't be tempted to laugh at her pouty expression.

"Because I miss Tree Hill," she told him as she put Anna down in her playpen.

"Well we can always go back to visit, there's Christmas next month and I'm sure my mum would love to see us then," he replied, with a grin at thought of the last few days in Tree Hill with his mum and Peyton were getting along like a house on fire.

"Yeah, it would be nice to have Anna's first Christmas surrounded by family."

She smiled as she did every time that she referred to Lucas' family as Anna's family; it felt as though for once she was getting what she wanted. The only problem was Jake.

* * *

Lucas woke up the next morning to an empty bed and Peyton screaming his name. He swung his legs out of bed, his heart pounding and ran towards Anna's room where Peyton's voice was coming from.

Panic was the prominent thought in his mind however, when he arrived and saw Peyton smiling at Anna the thought became confusion.

"Peyt what's wrong? Is Anna okay?" He said quickly, stumbling over the words.

"Oh my god, Luke," she squealed happily, "She has her first tooth."

"Seriously?" He asked excitedly, hurrying over to them.

"Yeah, look it's right there." She pointed it out to him proudly before hugging Anna tightly to her chest.

"Um, Peyt, I hate to break it to you but there's hardly anything there," he told her, hating the fact that he was probably crushing her dreams.

"No there is," she insisted, "Can't you see it?"

He saw her hopeful expression and just decided to go along with it, "Oh yeah, now I see what you mean."

"You don't see it, do you?" She asked him, able to see right through his false claim.

"I'm really sorry, honey," he replied, before taking Anna from her so he could say good morning to her properly.

"It's okay because even if daddy can't accept that you're teething mummy can, can't she, Anna?"

Lucas laughed at Peyton's baby voice before frowning, Peyton had referred to him as Anna's dad again and he didn't mind being called that – quite the opposite really – but if she kept it up then one day she was going to have to explain to Anna that she has two dads.

"What's wrong?" She asked him when she seeing his concerned expression.

"Are we doing the right thing?" He murmured.

"About what?"

"Letting Anna think that I'm her dad?"

And there it was: the question, it had being hanging unspoken between them but neither had the courage to ask. Until now.

"I don't know, Luke, before Jake came back it was exactly what I wanted and the truth is that it's still what I want because I don't think that Jake really knows what being a father is and if I'm right then he won't stay."

"What if you're wrong?" He asked hesitantly.

"I'm hoping I'm not," she admitted, unsurely, "But if Jake is here for a while then I guess we'll just have to try our best to explain it to her."

"I just wish that she was mine," he said more to himself than anyone else while looking into Anna's innocent eyes.

Peyton thought about what he said and paused a moment before telling him what was on her mind, "...Well you know that she could be yours, right?"

He looked at her with confusion, "Peyton as much as I wish she was, she's not mine."

"What I meant was that you could, you know, adopt her?" She asked, hesitantly.

"Seriously?" His eyebrows rose to an impossible height.

"Only if you want to, I just thought that you deserved it for everything that you've done for her, for us." She smiled nervously at him, "So what do you think?"

"Um... I don't know," he said honestly, "I mean I love Anna and everything...but..."

"No buts, please," Peyton murmured and Lucas smiled and sighed before continuing,

"But there's all this stuff with Jake going on and I just assumed that we'd get married before we even thought about me adopting Anna."

"Wait did you just say 'married'?" She immediately went into panic mode as the shock on his face appeared when he realised what he just said.

"No, no." His eyes were wide with panic as she just looked confused, "I mean yes I did say that but it wasn't like a proposal or anything, it wasn't."

"Okay, because you know that we haven't been together that long and we're so not ready for that," she told him, trying to keep her voice from shaking.

"Exactly, that's why I wasn't proposing," he told her with panic still masking his normal voice.

There was then an awkward silence as they both tried to figure out how to make this situation disappear. Even Anna was silent for once.

"You've thought about it?" She asked him, shyly with a small smile appearing on her lips.

"Pretty much since the day I met you," he replied with a matching smile.

"I've thought about it too," she told him quietly.

"Someday right?"

"Someday."

* * *

Lucas and Peyton had been back in LA for a week and after much debating it was decided that Jake's first real meeting with Anna would be at Lucas and Peyton's with both of them present to make sure that Anna was properly looked after.

"What time is it?" Peyton asked Lucas for the tenth time in the last half an hour.

"Peyt, calm down," Lucas said pulling her into a hug in an effort to sooth her.

"I am calm," she responded quickly, "Now answer my question, what time is it?"

"10:55," he told her, begrudgingly.

"Okay, so he still has five minutes," she muttered to herself before picking up Anna from her playpen.

"Hey, baby girl, you're going to be good right?" She asked her daughter for no apparent reason.

As a response Anna just gave her a cheeky giggle as though she was saying that she'd be anything but good.

"Didn't think so," she laughed for the first time that morning, she could never resist Anna's laugh.

"It's going to be okay," Lucas told her as he put his arms around his girls.

Twenty minutes later Peyton was sat on the sofa with Anna on her lap and Lucas beside her holding her hand while Jake was sat opposite them in an armchair. Since the initial compulsory comments about the weather were over an awkward silence had taken hold of the room with the exception of Anna who never seemed to stop giggling.

"Do you want to hold her?" Peyton asked as she got up and walked towards Jake.

He didn't even have time to answer before Peyton had placed her gently on his knee.

He looked down at the baby to see two green eyes staring back at him curiously; he began to feel uncomfortable under her gaze so he brought his eyes back to Lucas and Peyton.

"So what's her full name?"

The question made Peyton smile, "Anna Brooke Sco – Sawyer." She caught herself before she said Scott but everyone knew what she'd meant to say. Lucas and Peyton both blushed before looking at each other with shy smiles which made Jake roll his eyes.

"So why did you choose it?" He asked her in an attempt to show interest, "I mean I get the Brooke bit but why did you choose Anna?"

Peyton looked back at him hurt that he could forget, "Um... Anna was my mum's name."

"Oh god, Peyton, I can't believe I forgot." It was official: he really was an idiot.

"No it's okay," she tried to convince him but it wasn't very successful as she felt the tears sting her eyes, "Sorry, I just need a minute."

Both Lucas and Jake watched helplessly as she left the room.

"Aren't you going to go after her?" Jake asked him snidely.

"And leave you on your own with Anna? No way," Lucas snapped back not bothering to hide his irritation.

"She is my daughter, Lucas," Jake told him in an attempt to push his buttons.

"I guess we'll just see who she's going to call daddy then won't we?"

"You really think that you and Peyton are going to last?" Jake laughed, "Now that I'm back you won't even be around for Anna's first birthday."

"Come on, Jake," Lucas sat back on the sofa in a relaxed position, "We both know that you're not really here because you care about Anna, you've barely even looked at her for two seconds."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Jake shouted at him loud enough to make Anna cry.

He looked down at her in panic as he had no idea what he should do to stop her crying.

"Don't cry," he tried to talk to her but she wouldn't stop, he looked at Lucas and by the look on his face he could tell that Lucas knew how to stop her crying but he wouldn't give him the satisfaction.

He picked up a toy from the floor and gave it to her but she just dropped it straight away.

"What's going on?" Peyton asked as she stepped back into the room.

"Jake made Anna cry and now he's determined to stop her on his own," Lucas told her smugly which made Peyton roll her eyes.

"Lucas provoked me!" Jake told her while still trying to give Anna different toys with each one being thrown on the floor promptly afterwards.

"Lucas, grow up." She looked at him sternly but he could see the small smile that graced her lips, "And, Jake, just give her to me."

Jake handed Anna over to Peyton with a relieved expression.

"Hey, come here, baby," she cooed softly as she held Anna close to her chest.

Jake watched with a frown as Anna stopped crying and started to look at her mother with adoring eyes, he also noticed that Lucas was watching mother and daughter with his expression matching Anna's perfectly.

"I can't do this," Jake announced as he walked towards the door.

"What?" Peyton turned to him in confusion, "What are you talking about?"

"I can't be her dad, Peyton, I don't know how to do this," he told her as he moved closer to the door.

"And you think I did?" She asked him angrily, "I had no idea what the hell I was doing, in fact most of the time I still don't but you don't see me running away do you?"

"What's the point? You already have him." He pointed at Lucas who was now stood at Peyton's side.

"Don't you get it Jake? It's not about us; it's about Anna and what she needs."

"She doesn't need anyone else," he pointed out to her.

"What about when she's older and she asks where he dad is and why he didn't want her?"

Jake stopped and ran his fingers through his hair, "Look, I just don't know what I'm doing okay? I can't be a good dad to her if I can't even look after her."

"Then learn how to look after her," she kept her voice low so that she didn't cause Anna to cry again, "Don't just run away and give up."

"I don't know Peyton."

"Look why don't you just come here again this time next week and we can teach you a few basic things like how to stop her crying," she encouraged him with a motherly smile.

"Does he have to be here?" He asked her bitterly.

"Whether you like it or not Lucas knows Anna better than you do so yes, he does have to be here."

"Okay then, I'll be here next week."

* * *

After Jake had left the house Peyton put Anna in her crib for a nap while Lucas made them lunch.

As Lucas was cooking her felt Peyton wrap her arms around him in a tired manner, resting her cheek against his back.

"Hey, you," he said to her as he turned around in her embrace.

"Hey," she smiled up at him before he leant down to kiss her softly on the lips.

"How're you doing?"

"Could be better, you?"

"Pretty much the same," he laughed.

"Why does it have to be this difficult?" she asked him, "Why couldn't Jake have just stayed away or wanted to be in Anna's life from the start?"

"Because if Jake was in Anna's life from the start then we wouldn't have met which means that as selfish as it is, I'm happy that Jake didn't want to be Anna's dad because it worked out pretty well for me."

"Really?" She asked him self-consciously.

"Well yeah, I have a beautiful, amazing girlfriend and an equally beautiful and adorable little girl who I love very much."

"Just Anna or me too?" she asked him coyly.

"I think you already know the answer to that one," he said before he captured her lips with his.

* * *

Lucas and Peyton were sat on the sofa after lunch when there was a knock at the door.

"Oh I wonder who that could be," Lucas said sarcastically as they both moved towards the door.

As soon as the front door had been opened an excited Brooke entered the house.

"Okay where is she?"

"Napping and it's nice to see you too best friend," Peyton told her sarcastically.

"Sorry it's just that this is the longest I haven't seen her." Brooke moved towards Peyton to hug her.

"I know, so how have you been?" she asked her worriedly as Brooke hadn't seemed herself in a while.

"Fine but more importantly how was North Carolina?" Brooke asked as she dragged Peyton to the sofa to catch up.

"It was beautiful, Tree Hill is so gorgeous, Brooke, it's like the perfect town."

"I guess this is my cue to leave," Lucas laughed as the girls talked animatedly.

"See you later, Luke," Peyton called.

"So you had a nice time?" Brooke asked unnecessarily.

"It was perfect, well except the fact that Luke's mum didn't really like me at first and Lucas' ex-girlfriend still lives there but we didn't see her at all really." She frowned.

"Wait Lucas' mum doesn't like you?" Brooke asked as though she didn't believe what Peyton had just told her.

"Well at first she wasn't really sure if I was serious about Luke and I guess she just didn't want him to get hurt but then Lucas told her that he loved me and..." She began but was cut off by Brooke.

"Lucas told you he loved you?" She asked in awe.

Peyton blushed, "Um... yeah he did which made his mum give me a chance and by the time we came home we were getting along really well."

"I'm happy for you Peyton, it seems like everything's falling into place for you."

"Ah, you're forgetting Jake," Peyton said bitterly.

"What's he done now?" Brooke asked uncomfortably.

"He came to see Anna this morning and then left because he couldn't handle it," she told her with a look of disappointment on her face, "I just don't get it, I mean when he first came back all he wanted was to see Anna and now it's like he can't even be bothered to try. Maybe he only cares about her when he's drunk or something. I just wish he never came back."

After she'd finished her rant she turned to see Brooke with tears in her eyes.

"Brooke? What's wrong?"

Her concerned voice only made Brooke cry harder.

"Come on, just tell me."

"You're going to hate me," she warned her tearfully.

"Whatever it is I can promise you that I won't hate you," she assured her.

"I'm the reason that Jake is here, it's all my fault, Peyton," she cried.

Peyton stared at her dumbstruck, Brooke couldn't possibly have been the reason Jake was back, could she?

"What? How did - I mean... what happened?" She asked in a strangled voice.

"While I was in New York last month I met Jake in a bar and we slept together, I'm so sorry, Peyton."

Peyton just stared at her for a while as she processed what happened.

"What?" She managed to get out.

"We were drunk and he was saying all these things and I missed Julian and I know that's no excuse but I just wasn't thinking right," she sobbed.

"Did you tell him about Anna?" She asked her while trying not to think too much about the fact that her best friend had slept with the father of her baby.

"I gave him a picture of her, I'm so sorry, Peyton."

"Is that why he came back?" She asked even though she already knew the answer.

"He blackmailed me into giving him your address, he told me if I didn't then he'd tell you that we slept together," she explained with the tears still falling rapidly.

"Is this why you and Julian broke up?"

"No but I think that it made sure that we would never get back together."

"Look, I'm not going to lie to you, it hurts that you did it but everyone makes mistakes, I know that I certainly have and besides I think you've already been punished enough, you lost Julian and I know how much he meant to you."

"I loved him so much, Peyton, he was everything to me.

"Look at me," Peyton whispered, Brooke lifted her head to meet Peyton's eyes, "Everything's going to be okay, I promise."

* * *

"Wait what?" Lucas asked with his eyes wider than he thought possible.

"Yeah, they slept together," she told him despondently.

"But why?"

"I don't know... there was stuff going on with Julian but I just never thought in a million years that Brooke would be the reason he came back, she's my best friend, Luke."

"I know." He moved forward to hug her tightly before asking the question that he wasn't sure she'd want him to ask, "So what now?"

"I think I need to have a little chat with Jake."

* * *

**Wow that was longer than I thought it would be, hope it wasn't too long. I think the next chapter will take place about a month after this one but there will be a flashback to Peyton's 'little chat' with Jake, actually it gets quite dramatic in the next chapter and it will end with a cliffhanger so I'm kind of looking forward to writing it which hopefully means a faster update.**


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